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Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Maple Sugar - Advanced

2. Make at least five taps and boil down at least two quarts of syrup.
The first step will be finding a suitable maple tree. The tree should be at least 10 inches in diameter. For every extra foot of diameter, you can drill another tap. A brace and bit is the traditional tool for tapping the tree, but you could also use a cordless drill, or if you can reach the tree with an extension cord, a power drill. Whichever tool you choose for boring the tap hole, be sure to use either a 7/16" or a 1/2" bit. The hole should be about 2.5" deep, and angled such that the sap can run downhill out of the tap.

Once the hole has been bored, lightly tap the tap into place (perhaps that's why it's called a tap). There are several types of taps that you can use. A tap could be made by boring a hole in a round chunk of wood, and carving a notch in it to receive the bucket handle, or it could be any of several commercially available varieties. Some are designed to hold a bucket, and others are designed to connect to plastic tubing. If you can manage it, plastic tubing is a lot easier because multiple taps can be drained into a common container. This reduces the amount of labor involved, but it also requires that the tapped trees be located on a hillside so the sap will flow into the container, or it requires a pump (which requires power). Power is sometimes difficult to come by in the woods.

Once the tap is in place, the sap needs to be directed into a container. This is either a bucket hung directly on the tap, or some sort of container into which the tubing is routed. The bucket should then be covered to keep out the rain and debris.

A good tree can produce a gallon of sap per day, so once you've tapped the trees, you need to keep an eye on them. Empty the buckets into a larger container until you have at least 15-20 gallons of sap (that's how much you'll need to make 2 quarts of syrup). When you have enough sap, pour it into an evaporator. An evaporator is a large shallow pan (typically 36"x24"x6") situated over a fire. The fire is often built in a steel drum which has been adapted to this use (see photo).  This process will take several hours, so you'll need to wait until you have an entire day to dedicate to the task.  The labor intensive portion of this task is to keep the fire stoked.  Once the sap has been reduced by a factor or 30-40, it can be transferred to jugs for storage.

3. Collect a leaf and bark from two maples.
The leaves of the maple tree are fairly distinct and easy to identify. Indeed, the maple leaf is the central motif of the Flag of Canada.

Unfortunately, collecting a maple leaf is generally not something that can be done when the sap is running. Maples drop their leaves in the fall. The first signs of green made by a maple tree in spring is when it flowers. The leaves come a little later. The bark, of course, presents no such problem, as it can be collected any time during the year.

4. List two usages of the sugar maple other than maple sugaring.
Maple wood makes good firewood. Maple wood has been used for lumber and especially for making flooring, wagons, and buildings. Furniture is its most important use. The beauty of the tree adds to the beauty of our out-of-doors. It also provides shade and cooling in the summer.

5. What do you look for in tapping a maple tree?
Healthy trees, at least 10” in diameter with many branches. Tapping is best done on the east and south sides of trees where the sun warms it in the mornings and early afternoons.

6. When is the right time to tap a maple tree in the spring?
When warm days are above freezing and nights are below.

7. Name the four maples that produce sweet sap.
There are approximately 19 varieties of maple trees. Some that produce sweet sap are: An additional ornamental maple tree that also produces good syrup is:
 * 1) Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) - also known as hard maple or rock maple.
 * 2) Silver maple (Acer saccarinum)
 * 3) Red maple (Acer rubrum) - the second heaviest producer of syrup.
 * 4) Black maple (Acer nigrum)
 * 5) Ashed leaf (box elder) maple (Acer negundo)
 * Norway maple (Acer platanoides) - stems exude a milky fluid when squeezed or when leaves plucked.

8. What is the size of the drill bit? (2 sizes)
Use a 7/16 or 1/2 inch bit to drill for the spigots. I would recommend the 7/16 inch size.

9. How can sap spoil and how is it like milk?
It may spoil if the sap is not kept cool or if it is kept too long before boiling it down. Spoiled sap has a slightly milky appearance. If boiled down it has a very dark appearance.

10. What is the maple sugaring legend?
One story is that an Indian warrior threw his tomahawk into a maple tree on a spring morning and “sweet juice” began to flow down his tomahawk, and he caught it in his hand and drank it and found it good.

Another story is of an Indian maiden who left her pottery jar at the base of a maple tree. When she returned, her pottery jar was filled with sap due to a crack in the tree.

Most likely though is that the Indians observed insects at the sap and tried it for that reason.

11. To make one quart of syrup, how many quarts of sap will you need?
It takes 30 - 40 quarts of sap to make one quart of syrup.

12. How can one tell if syrup is ready or near ready during boiling without a thermometer or hydrometer?
When boiling is started the sap looks like boiling water. As the water is boiled off the color gets darker slowly. As the sap gets close to the syrup point the bubbles get smaller. At this point the syrup tends to rise up and boil over.

Another indication is the consistency. At the syrup stage, the liquid comes off a spatula in small gooey sheets rather than drops.

With a candy thermometer, the syrup is ready when the temperature is 7 °F. above the boiling point of water at your elevation. (The boiling point of water drops 1 °F. for every 550 feet increase in elevation above sea level.)

13. How did the early settlers become acquainted with maple sugaring?
Maple sugaring was introduced to the early settlers by the North American Indians.

14. Visit two sugar operations.
Though some sugar houses include tours of their operation, they may charge for this. If this is not a concern, go ahead and make arrangements. If you ask nicely, or if you know someone who makes syrup on a small scale, you may be able to get a tour for free (especially if your group is willing to pitch in for a half day to keep the fires going or help collect the sap).

16. Make one pound of maple sugar candy and explain how it was made.
If you continue boiling the syrup until the temperature reaches 30o to 33o F. above the boiling point of water (e.g. 241o to 244o F. in Michigan) and then stir the syrup vigorously it will start to crystallize. At this point you put it into whatever molds or containers you wish before it hardens too much in the pan.

17. What is maple wax on snow?
It is made by pouring hot syrup onto snow. As it cools it makes a delicious treat.

18. When the sap is yellow and/or moths collect in the buckets, what does that usually mean?
Time to quit for the year. The sap will produce a dark syrup of a low grade.


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Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Marine Algae

1. What is marine algae?
The most common name for marine algae is "seaweed". Seaweeds are popularly described as plants, but biologists do not consider them plants (in biology, all true plants belong to the kingdom Plantae). They should not be confused with aquatic plants such as seagrasses (which are vascular plants).

2. Where is it found?
Marine algae are mostly found in shallow ocean water near rocky shores. It is also found in fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, and rivers.

3. What is the organ of attachment to the substratum called? How does it differ from a true root?
The organ that attaches a marine algae to a substrate is called a "holdfast" Unlike a root, a holdfast derives no nutrients from this intimate contact with the substrate.

Holdfasts vary in shape and form depending on both the species and the substrate type. The holdfasts of organisms that live in muddy substrates often have complex tangles of root-like growths, while those of organisms that live in sandy substrates are bulb-like and very flexible, such as the holdfast of sea pens, allowing the organism(s) to pull the entire body into the substrate when the holdfast is contracted. The holdfasts of organisms that live on smooth surfaces (such as the surface of a boulder) have the base of the holdfast literally glued to the surface.

4. How does size vary in marine algae?
Some marine algae are so small they can only be seen under a microscope. Others are very large, such as Macrocystis, a species of kelp belonging to the brown algae group, which may reach in length.

6. Is most green algae found in fresh or salt water?
While about 90% of the species of green algae live in freshwater habitats and most of the other 10% live in marine habitats, other species are adapted to a wide range of environments. Watermelon snow, or Chlamydomonas nivalis, of the class Chlorophyceae, lives on summer alpine snowfields. Others live attached to rocks or woody parts of trees. Some lichens are symbiotic relationships with fungi and a green alga.

7. What are diatoms?
Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although some form chains or simple colonies. A characteristic feature of diatom cells is that they are encased within a unique cell wall made of silica (hydrated silicon dioxide) called a frustule. These frustules show a wide diversity in form, some quite beautiful and ornate, but usually consist of two asymmetrical sides with a split between them, hence the group name.

Diatoms are a widespread group and can be found in the oceans, in freshwater, in soils and on damp surfaces. Most live in open water, although some live as surface films at the water-sediment interface, or even under damp atmospheric conditions. They are especially important in oceans, where they are estimated to contribute up to 45% of the base of the oceanic food chain.

8. Where does algae grow-the polar, temperate, or tropic zone?
Algae grow in all of these zones, from Picobiliphytes, which are an algae indigenous to polar regions, to Sargassum, which lives in the tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

9. Where is brown algae most invariably found-in fresh or salt water?
Brown algae is found in most salt water ecosystems.

10. What is the greatest depth that algae grows in the ocean? Why can it not grow in deeper water?
The deepest living algae are those that are attached to the sea-bed under several meters of water. The limiting factor in such cases is the availability of sufficient sunlight to support photosynthesis. The deepest living seaweeds are the various kelps.

11. Name the three parts of a large kelp. How do they compare to the leaf, stem, and root of a plant?

 * Blade: The blade is a large, flat structure, and is analogous to a plant's leaves.
 * Stipe: The stipe serves as a stem to which the blades are attached.
 * Holdfast: The holdfast is the part of the plant that anchors it to a substrate, such as a rock or the seafloor. It is analogous to a plant's root.

Sexual Reproduction
Most forms of algae reproduce sexually by forming spores. The spores, when cast off the adult organism, develop into male and female gametes which carry only half the genetic information of the parent organism. These gametes are motile, meaning they can move around by themselves, propelled by tiny flagella. When male and female gametes from the same or from different parent organisms combine, the genetic material fuses to create an organism with a full complement of genetic material. This is very similar to the way that ferns reproduce (see the Ferns honor for more details.

Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is advantageous in that it permits efficient population increases, but less variation is possible. Sexual reproduction allows more variation but is more costly because of the waste of gametes that fail to mate, among other things. Often there is no strict alternation between the sporophyte and gametophyte phases and also because there is often an asexual phase, which could include the fragmentation of the thallus.

13. What are some of the commercial values of algae? Give at least one for each group.

 * Food: Most cultures with access to Porphyra, a genus of red algae use it as a food or somehow in the diet, making it perhaps the most domesticated of the marine algae.

 * Emulsifier: Gelatinous extracts of carrageen seaweed (also known as Irish moss, a red algae) have been used as food additives for hundreds of year. It acts as an emulsifier, which is to say, it help combine items which resist combination, such as oil and water.  It is commonly used in toothpaste, ice cream, milkshakes, sauces, and even shampoo (which we admit is not a food).

 * Fertilizer: Seaweed, particularly bladderwrack, kelp or laminaria (which are all forms of brown algae), can be either applied to the soil as a mulch (although it will tend to break down very quickly) or can be added to the compost heap, where it is an excellent activator.

 * Medicine: Laminaria (a genus of brown algae) is used in the production of potassium chloride and iodine. Dried laminaria sticks can be used medicinally to induce dilation of the cervix. An additional medicinal use of algae is the product agar which is used as a culture medium for growing bacteria in laboratoy settings.

 * Pigments: The natural pigments produced by algae can be used as an alternative to chemical dyes and coloring agents. Many of the paper products used today are not recyclable because of the chemical inks that they use, paper recyclers have found that inks made from algae are much easier to break down. There is also much interest in the food industry into replacing the coloring agents that are currently used with coloring derived from algal pigments. In Israel, a species of green algae is grown in water tanks, then exposed to direct sunlight and heat which causes it to become bright red in color. It is then harvested and used as a natural pigment for foods such as Salmon.

==14. Make a collection of at least twenty specimen of marine algae properly identified, mounted, and labeled. There must be at least four specimens from the Green group, eight from the Brown group, and eight from the Red group. == The best approach for meeting this requirement is to obtain a field guide to algae, go out to a beach, and collect the various types you find. Once you have a specimen, use the field guide to try to identify it. Continue collecting until you have at least 20 specimens you can identify, being absolutely sure to remove any animals living in the algae before you leave the area. You can collect the specimens in a bucket or keep them in plastic bags.

You will need to start the drying process right away. For this you will need:
 * A shallow tray (such as from a cafeteria, or a cookie sheet)
 * Mounting paper (herbarium paper or drawing paper)
 * Wax paper
 * Mailing labels or strips of paper
 * Newspaper or blotter paper
 * Two small pieces of plywood
 * Nylon straps or belts, or C clamps

Follow this procedure:
 * 1) Rinse the alga to remove salt, sand, and foreign particles.
 * 2) place one of the small pieces of plywood on a work surface and cover it with a layer of blotter paper (or newspaper).
 * 3) Fill the shallow pan with water and float the mounting paper in it.
 * 4) Float the algae specimen on the mounting paper, spreading the fronds out as best you can.
 * 5) Carefully lift the mounting paper with the algae specimen out of the water, draining off the water as you lift it up.
 * 6) Lay the mounting paper on the blotter paper placed on the sheet of plywood earlier.
 * 7) Cover the sample (still on the mounting paper) with a sheet of wax paper
 * 8) Put your name and the specimen's identity on the mailing label, and place it on the wax paper.
 * 9) Cover this with another layer of blotter paper and/or newspaper.
 * 10) Repeat for each sample, stacking them on atop the other, separated by blotters.
 * 11) When the last specimen has been covered, lay the second piece of plywood over assembly.
 * 12) Bind the "sandwich" with the nylon straps or belts, and tighten as best you can.  Alternately, you could use C-clamps to clamp the sandwich together, or you could place heavy weights on the entire assembly.
 * 13) Place in a well-ventilated area
 * 14) Change the newspaper and blotter paper daily for the next five days or until the samples are dry,

Many types of algae have natural adhesives in them that will cause them to stick to the mounting paper all by themselves. For those that do not, a small dot of white glue may be used to affix them to the mounting paper. Label with the information collected about the specimen.

15. Be able to identify by generic name at least ten types of marine algae.
The "generic" name in the requirement means that you should learn which genus ten specimens belong to. Don't be scared of the scientific names (Latin names) - they are no more difficult to learn than the common names, especially if you know neither when you start.

We present several species below, but you should not expect that these are the only samples you will find. Get a good field guide and identify the algae you find rather than trying to find the algae you can identify.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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User:Rikvanvelzen

I am currently a university student studying at the University of Utrecht, majoring in Biology. My main interests of study are human physiology and consciousness and i've been taking classes in psychology, philosophy and biology on these subjects.

Main Project
I currently started a wikibook called Chronic Fatigue Syndrom / Reflections on embodiment and therapeutical approaches as an experiment.

Current Projects

 * Chronic Fatigue Syndrom / Reflections on embodiment and therapeutical approaches

title: User:Rikvanvelzen


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Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Moths & Butterflies

1. What is the distinction between moths and butterflies?
The division of Lepidopterans into moths and butterflies is a popular taxonomy, not a scientific one. The distinctions listed here are not absolute. There are many butterflies with some of the characteristics of moths and many moths with some of the characteristics of butterflies.

Antennae
The most obvious difference is in the feelers, or antennae. Most butterflies have thin slender filamentous antennae which are club shaped at the end. Moths, on the other hand, often have comb-like or feathery antennae, or filamentous and unclubbed.

Pupae
Most moth caterpillars spin a cocoon made of silk within which they metamorphose into the pupal stage. Most butterflies on the other hand form an exposed pupa which is also termed as a chrysalis.

Coloration of the wings
Most butterflies have bright colours on their wings. Nocturnal moths on the other hand are usually plain brown, grey, white or black and often with obscuring patterns of zigzags or swirls which help camouflage them as they rest during the day. However many day-flying moths are brightly-colored, particularly if they are toxic. A few butterflies are also plain-colored, like the Cabbage White butterfly.

Time of activity
Most moths are nocturnal while most butterflies are diurnal. There are however exceptions, including the diurnal Gypsy moth and the spectacular "Uraniidae" or Sunset moths.

Resting posture
Moths usually rest with their wings spread out to their sides. Butterflies frequently fold their wings above their backs when they are perched although they will occasionally "bask" with their wings spread for short periods.

2. Define the following terms: antennae, cocoon, pupa, larva, chrysalis.

 * Antennae: Antennae are paired appendages connected to the front-most segments of an insect. Antennae are jointed, at least at the base, and generally extend forward from the head. They are sensory organs, although the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups, nor always clear. Functions may variously include sensing touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially smell or taste.

 * Cocoon: A cocoon is a casing spun of silk by many moth caterpillars and numerous other insect larvae as a protective covering for the pupa.

 * Pupa: A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation.

 * Larva: A larva is a juvenile form of animal with indirect development, undergoing metamorphosis (for example, insects or amphibians). The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly. Larvae often have special (larval) organs which do not occur in the adult form.

 * Chrysalis: A chrysalis or nympha is the pupal stage of butterflies. Because chrysalids are often showy and are formed in the open they are the most familiar examples of pupae. Most chrysalids are attached to a surface by a Velcro-like arrangement of a silken pad spun by the caterpillar and a set of hooks at the tip of the pupal abdomen.

4. What causes colored powder to come off on your hands when you handle the wings of a butterfly or moth? Examine the powder of a butterfly or moth with a magnifying lens and describe your findings.
This powder is made from tiny scales which cover the butterfly's wings. These scales give the wings their color, as the membrane beneath the scales is nearly transparent. The scales detach when abraded by a finger, much as the skin on a person's knee is abraded when it contacts a sidewalk.

Gypsy Moth
The gypsy moth was introduced into the United States in 1868 by a French scientist, Leopold Trouvelot, living in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The native silk spinning caterpillars were proving to be susceptible to disease. So Trouvelot brought over gypsy moth eggs to try to make a caterpillar hybrid, that could resist diseases. When some of the moths escaped from his lab, they started to multiply. They eventually grew to be gypsy moths as we know them today. It is now one of the most notorious pests of hardwood trees in the Eastern United States.

Since 1980, the gypsy moth has defoliated over 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) of forest each year. In 1981, a record 12,900,000 acres (52,200 km²) were defoliated. This is an area larger than Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut combined. In wooded suburban areas, during periods of infestation when trees are visibly defoliated, gypsy moth larvae crawl up and down walls, across roads, over outdoor furniture, and even inside homes. During periods of feeding they leave behind a mixture of small pieces of leaves and frass, or excrement. During outbreaks, the sound of chewing and frass dropping is a continual annoyance. Gypsy moth populations usually remain at very low levels but occasionally populations increase to very high levels which can result in partial to total defoliation of host trees for 1–3 years.

Gypsy moths eat only during their larval stage.

Tent caterpillar
"Tent Caterpillars" are moderately sized species in the genus Malacosoma in the moth family Lasiocampidae. Species occur in North America, Mexico, and Eurasia. Twenty-six species have been described, six of which occur in North America. Although most people consider tent caterpillars only as pests due to their habit of defoliating trees, they are among the most social of all caterpillars and exhibit many noteworthy behaviors.

Tent caterpillars are readily recognized because they are social, colorful, diurnal and build conspicuous silk tents in the branches of host trees. Some species, such as the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum, build a single large tent which is typically occupied through the whole of the larval stage while others build a series of small tents that are sequentially abandoned. The forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstrium, is exceptional in that the larvae build no tent at all, aggregating instead on silken mats that they spin on the leaves or bark of trees. Tents facilitate aggregation and serve as focal sites of thermal regulatory behavior. They also serve as communication centers where caterpillars are alerted to the discovery of new food finds.

Lesser wax moth
Wax moths were first seen in North America in 1806. People believe they came over with honeybees from Europe. The lesser wax moth is very common all over the world, except the colder regions. The larvae are the only ones that eat, the adults will not eat.

Their diet typically consists of honey, beeswax, stored pollen, bee shell casings, and, in some cases, bee brood. While tunneling through honeycombs attaining food, these moths are also protecting themselves from their main enemy, the honeybee.

Codling moth
Coddling moths are known as an agricultural pest, their larva being the common apple worm or maggot. It is native to Europe and was introduced to North America, where it has become one of the regular pests of apple orchards. It is found almost worldwide. It also attacks pears, walnuts, and other tree fruits. This larva is the famous "worm in the apple" of cartoon and vernacular fame.

Clothing Moth
The Clothing Moth (Tineola bisselliella) is a winged insect capable of flying, which develops from a caterpillar. It is recognized as a serious pest. Like most moth caterpillars, it can (and will) derive nourishment not only from clothing but also from many other sources.

Eggs hatch into larvae, which then begin to feed. Once they get their fill, they pupate and undergo metamorphosis to emerge as adults. Adults do not eat: male adults look for females and adult females look for places to lay eggs. Once their job is done, they die. Contrary to what most people believe, adult clothing moths do not eat or cause any damage to clothing or fabric. It is the larvae which are solely responsible for this, spending their entire time eating and foraging for food.

White-shouldered Moth
The White Shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella) is a very common moth and occurs regularly inside buildings, and being continuously-brooded, can be found at any time of year, mainly found indoors via open doors, windows etc. It is a widely distributed species whose larvae infest stored grain

6. What famous butterfly follows the birds southward every winter and comes northward in the spring ?
Monarch butterflies are especially noted for their lengthy annual migration. They make massive southward migrations starting in August until the first frost. A northward migration takes place in the spring. Female Monarchs deposit eggs for the next generation during these migrations. By the end of October, they reach their overwintering grounds. The length of these journeys exceeds the normal lifespan of most Monarchs, which is less than two months for butterflies born in early summer. The last generation of the summer enters into a non-reproductive phase known as diapause and may live up to 7 months. During diapause, butterflies fly to one of many overwintering sites. The generation that overwinters generally does not reproduce until it leaves the overwintering site sometime in February and March. It is thought that the overwinter population may reach as far north as Texas and Oklahoma during the spring migration. It is the second, third and fourth generations that return to their northern locations in the United States and Canada in the spring. How the species manages to return to the same overwintering spots over a gap of several generations is still a subject of research; the flight patterns appear to be inherited, based on a combination of circadian rhythm and the position of the sun in the sky.

==7. Identify in the field, then draw, photograph or collect 25 species of moths and butterflies, with not more than two specimens of any one variety. When collecting, specimens should be anesthetized by using carbon tetrachloride or other chemical in collecting jar. In either project correctly label and include the following information: a. Name b. Date observed c. Location d. Time of day e. Plant on which the insect was feeding or the material on which it was perched== For identification purposes, you will need to get a copy of a good field guide. As with many other identification tasks, it is best to find a specimen first and then attempt to identify it, rather than going out to look for a particular specimen.

Pathfinders are encouraged to draw or photograph specimens rather than collect them. Identification should be done in the field. If going as a group, it is OK to bring one camera (perhaps the instructor's) and then have the rest of the participants make their drawing from the pictures taken. If you have access to a digital camera and a projector, you could project a slide show and have the Pathfinders make drawings as the slides are shown. You may also print the photos and pass them around.

For the drawing of Moths and Butterflys you can go to the http://coloringpages4kids.net/animals/insects/butterflies/butterfly-coloring-pages?nggpage=2 website and to the side find the moths also. Very good detail for drawing. The picture can be printed out and used for drawing also.

8. Describe the life cycle of a butterfly or moth. What lesson can be learned in connection with the resurrection of the righteous?
Butterflies and moths are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colorful winged adult form. Pictures for drawing of each cycle http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/coloringpages

Life Cycle
Unlike many insects, butterflies do not experience a nymph period, but instead go through a pupal stage which lies between the larva and the adult stage. The four stages of a butterfly's life cycle are:

 * Egg: Butterfly eggs are fixed to a leaf with a special glue which hardens rapidly. As it hardens it contracts, deforming the shape of the egg. This glue is easily seen surrounding the base of every egg. Eggs are usually laid on plants. Each species of butterfly has its own hostplant range and while some species of butterfly are restricted to just one species of plant, others use a range of plant species, often including members of a common family.

 * Caterpillar: Larvae, or caterpillars, are multi-legged eating machines. They consume plant leaves and spend practically all of their time in search of food. Caterpillars mature through a series of stages, called instars. At the end of each instar, the larva moults the old cuticle, and the new cuticle rapidly hardens and pigments. Development of butterfly wing patterns begins by the last larval instar.

 * Pupa: When the larva is fully grown, hormones are produced. At this point the larva stops feeding and begins "wandering" in the quest of a suitable pupation site, often the underside of a leaf. The larva transforms into a pupa (or chrysalis) by anchoring itself to a substrate and moulting for the last time. The chrysalis is usually incapable of movement, although some species can rapidly move the abdominal segments or produce sounds to scare potential predators.

 * Image: The adult, sexually mature, stage of the insect is known as the imago. After it emerges from its pupal stage, a butterfly cannot fly until the wings are unfolded. A newly emerged butterfly needs to spend some time inflating its wings with blood and letting them dry, during which time it is extremely vulnerable to predators. Some butterflies' wings may take up to three hours to dry while others take about one hour.

Resurrection
The life cycle of the butterfly has parallels to the life cycle of a Christian. During the larval stage, a butterfly lacks the beauty of an adult. It spends all of its time feeding itself, often causing major damage to plants. This stage of a butterfly's life can be likened to the untranslated state of man, in that it is unlovely and often ignorant of the damage it causes.

Eventually, the caterpillar pupates. This stage is parallel to death.

While inside its chrysalis, the butterfly is transformed. This is not something it is conscious of doing. At the resurrection of the righteous, the Christian will also transformed by Christ into a new person, free from all defects. Gone are the selfish desires and the ugliness. It is a beautiful creature free from sin.


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Horticulture/Square Foot Gardening

Square Foot Gardening is a type of intensive gardening popularized by author and horticulturist Mel Bartholemew. It is based on the idea that the wide rows in conventional home gardening are a waste of time, work, water and space, and that more quality vegetables can be grown in less space with less effort.

In this method, the garden space is divided into beds (a 4' x 4', 16 sq ft or 120cm x 120cm, 1.4m² garden being recommended) and separated by paths. These beds are further divided into squares of approximately one square foot, and planted with your vegetables. Common spacing is one plant/square for larger plants such as ../Broccoli/, ../Basil/, etc.. four/square for medium large plants like ../Lettuce/, nine/square for medium-small plants like ../Spinach/, and sixteen/square for small plants such as ../Onion/s and ../Carrot/s. The beds are weeded and watered from the pathways, so the garden soil is not compacted.

Benefits of Square Foot Gardening

 * Much less work. Conventional gardening requires heavy tools to loosen the soil, whereas in this method, the soil is never compacted and it remains loose and loamy. Weeding takes much less time due to the compact nature of the garden.
 * Water Savings. Due to the nature of the soil and its water-holding capacities, this type of garden needs water less frequently than other methods.  Also, water is placed very near the plant roots, wasting very little in the process. It also increases your harvest due to the rich soil mixture.
 * Very little weeding. One benefit of this close planting is that the vegetables form a living mulch, and shade out many weed seeds before they have a chance to germinate.
 * Pesticide / Herbicide Free. Natural insect repellent methods like companion planting (i.e. planting marigolds or other naturally pest-repelling plants) become very efficient in a close space and thus, pesticides are not necessary. The large variety of crops in a small space also prevents plant diseases from spreading easily.
 * Accessibility. A plywood bottom can be attached to the bottom of a box, which can then be placed on a raised platform for elderly or disabled persons to use.

Summary of Methods

 * Layout. Don't think in rows, think in squares. Start with a 4 foot by 4 foot box.
 * Boxes. Create boxes to hold new soil above the ground.
 * Aisles. Leave at least 3 feet between boxes for walking aisles.
 * Soil. Use 1/3 good, diverse compost, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite. (Coarse vermiculite may be hard to obtain, especially in UK).
 * Grid. Make a grid for the top of each box in 1 foot by 1 foot squares.
 * Care. Never walk on or compress the soil.
 * Select. Plant a different crop, herb, or flower in each square foot. Depending on the spacing indicated on the seed packet, plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 per grid square.
 * Plant. Don't waste seeds. Plant only 1-3 seeds per hole.
 * Water. Don't waste water - water by hand directly to the base of the plant.
 * Harvest. Add a trowel full of a good, diverse compost after each harvest.

title: Horticulture/Square Foot Gardening


text:
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Poultry

a. Plymouth Rock (any color)
Black and white

b. Wyandotte (any color)
Brown

c. Rhode Island Red
Black and brown

d. Orpington (any color)
Black

e. Leghorn (any color)
White

2. State orally or write a short paragraph regarding the egg-laying or meat-producing qualities of each breed.
These qualities are discussed in the answers for requirement 1.Integrated egg production is the most advanced enterprise and involves full mechanization and automation of the egg production cycle including battery egg laying, temperature controls, scientific feeding and mechanized egg collection methods.

3. Identify by description a Peking duck.
A yellow bill and creamy white plumage, with orange shanks and toes. The ducks have an upright carriage and a peculiarly upturned rump

4. Identify by description and from pictures three breeds of large domestic fowl such as the following turkeys
The three breeds listed in the requirement (Mammoth Bronze, White Holland, and Red Bourbon) are now considered "heritage breeds" and are no longer in regular commercial production. They do still exist and are bred by enthusiasts, but information about them is difficult to come by.

The scarceness of these breeds spills over to the Internet as well, making it very difficult to find photos released under a usable license. For this reason, if you can contribute photos to this project we certainly solicit you to do so. Until we have images with appropriate licenses, the best we can do is provide links to copyrighted photos elsewhere on the Internet.

a. Mammoth Bronze turkey
Broad-breasted turkey, with excellent conformation and high meat quality due to its natural fat layering.

b. White Holland turkey
The White Holland is an old variety of domestic turkey known for its white plumage

c. Bourbon Red turkey
The Bourbon Red is an attractive bird for either exhibition or just for the backyard. They are active foragers, and would probably do well in a pasture production system,

a. Toulouse goose
The Toulouse is a French breed of large domestic goose,

b. Embden
The Emden or Embden is a German breed of domestic goose.

c. Chinese Geese
The Chinese goose is a breed of domesticated goose descended from the wild swan goose, which originated in China

d. Sebastopol Geese
The Sebastopol is a breed of domestic goose, descended from the European Greylag goose.

e. Cape Barren Goose
The Cape Barren goose is a large goose resident in southern Australia

6. Visit a poultry farm or Agricultural Fair and write a brief report on the various types of poultry observed.
Poultry farming, raising of birds domestically or commercially, primarily for meat and eggs but also for feathers. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese are of primary importance, while guinea fowl and squabs (young pigeons) are chiefly of local interest. This article treats the principles and practices of poultry farming

An Agricultural Fair is commonly known as a State Fair or a County Fair in the United States. A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs.

Originally a state fair was just a competitive exhibition of livestock in various competitions, the display of farm products which were not necessarily for sale, and the competition among various fair goers and participants in such categories as handicrafts, baked goods, jams and jellies, etc., but has since been expanded to include carnival amusement rides and games, music, races, tests of strength and skill, etc. Large fairs can see more than a million visitors over the course of a week or two.

Attending a fair like this can be a very enjoyable experience for your Pathfinders. You can find a list of state fairs in the Wikipedia article on State Fairs.


text:
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Reptiles

1. What characteristics must an animal have to be classed as a reptile?
Reptiles are cold blooded animals. They are thick-skinned. Most have scales and reproduce by egg-laying, but several give birth to live young. The lack of a larval stage distinguishes reptiles from amphibians.

2. Name 5 reptiles (lizards, snakes, and/or turtles) found in your locality. Tell where they live, their food habits, and their economic importance.
Reptiles also include alligators and crocodiles, so if those animals can be found in your area, they should be named.

eNature.com is a good resource for this. You can search local wildlife by zip code, and it also gives information about each animal.

You may also wish to review the Wikibooks Field Guide to Reptiles, though as of this writing, it is still very much in its infancy.

3. Name five venomous reptiles of your area describing each as to the location of their fangs and geographical distribution.
Some geographic areas have no venomous reptiles, so we choose to interpret "geographic area" as representing an entire continent.

Australia
== 4. the two types of venom found in reptiles are hemotoxic and neurotoxic. Hemotoxic venom attacks the blood, preventing it from clotting and damaging the blood vessels. Neurotoxic venom attacks the nervous system, causing respiratory difficulty, paralysis, and heart failure. ==

5. Tell what to do if you are bitten by a non-venomous snake.
Treatment of a non-venomous snakebite is essentially the same as the treatment for puncture wounds. Clean the wound, cover it with a sterile bandage, and seek medical attention.

6. Do one of the following:
===a. Tell the life history of one representative of each: lizard, snake, turtle. Compare lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles as to life history, variation in eyes and ears, teeth, heart, lungs, limbs, tails, and scales (shells). ===

Life History of the Leopard Gecko
Leopard Geckos become sexually mature at around 10-14 months of age. The Leopard Gecko's gender can be determined once the animal reaches an adult length of 5+".

Leopard Geckos breed from March through September, although the season may begin as early as January and finish as late as October. Thirty days later, the female will lay one or two eggs with a leathery shell. Clutches of two eggs will then be laid every two weeks to monthly throughout the rest of the mating season varying from each gecko according to age, with older females gradually laying fewer eggs with each year. The eggs will need to be incubated.

Like many other egg-laying reptiles the sex of Leopard geckos are determined by incubation temperature. Eggs incubated at 79 F will result in a majority of female neonates, where as eggs incubated at 85 - 87 F will result in a more even sex ratio and eggs incubated at 89 - 90 F in the first four weeks will result in more males. Females hatched from these eggs are generally more aggressive than other females, and they tend to reach sexual maturity later if at all. An incubation temperature lower than 77 F or higher than 97 F will cause deformities and usually death of the neonates incubated at these temperatures.

The eggs hatch 6-12 weeks after being laid depending on temperature. The gecko breaks the surface of the egg and pushes its head out, remaining in this position from 2 to 4 hours adapting to lung breathing and obtaining oxygen from the egg membranes as well as absorbing yolk from inside the egg.

Jewelled Green Gecko (Native of New Zealand)
Along with the New Caledonian rough-snouted gecko (Rhacodactylus trachyrhynchus) all New Zealand Gecko give birth to live young. The eggs hatch in the oviduct and a birth occurs. Each litter consists of two young. After three years, or depending on temperature and food availability causing them to grow to a good size, they become sexually mature. Mating occurs in September-October, and birthing in May-June.

Life History of the Garter Snake
Before they mate, garter snakes go into brumation, which is a state similar to hibernation. They stop eating for about two weeks beforehand to clear their stomach of any food that would rot there otherwise. Garter snakes begin mating as soon as they emerge from brumation. In chillier parts of their range, male common garter snakes awaken from brumation first, giving themselves enough time to prepare to mate with females when they finally appear. After mating, a female leaves the den/mating area to find food and a place to give birth. Female garter snakes are able to store the male's sperm for years before fertilization. The young are incubated in the lower abdomen, at about the midpoint of the length of the mother's body. Garter snakes are viviparous, meaning they give birth to live young. Gestation is two to three months in most species. As few as 3 or as many as 50 snakes are born in a single litter. The babies are independent upon birth.

Life History of the Leatherback Turtle
Like all sea turtles, leatherback turtles start their lives as hatchlings bursting out from the sands of their nesting beaches. Right after they hatch, the baby turtles are already in danger of predation. Many are eaten by birds, crustaceans or other reptiles before they reach the water. Once they reach the ocean they are generally not seen again until maturity. Very few turtles survive this mysterious period to become adults. It is known that juvenile leatherbacks spend a majority of their particular life stage in more tropical waters than the adults.

Adults are prone to long-distance bouts of migration. Migration in leatherback turtles occurs between the cold waters in which mature leatherbacks cruise in to feed on the abundant masses of jellyfish that occur in those waters, to the tropical and subtropical beaches in the regions where they were hatched from. In the Atlantic, individual females tagged in French Guiana off the coast of South America have been recaptured on the other side of the ocean in Morocco and Spain.

Mating between leatherback turtles take place at sea. Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it unlike females which crawl onto land to nest.

While the other species of sea turtles almost-always return to the same beaches they hatched from, female leatherback turtles have been found to be capable of switching to another beach within the same general region of their "home" beach. Chosen nesting beaches are comprised of soft sand since their shells and plastrons (the turtle's underside) are softer and easily damaged by hard rocks. Nesting beaches also have shallower approach angles from the sea. This is a source of vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches are easily eroded. Females excavate a nest above the high-tide line with their flippers. One female may lay as many as nine clutches in one breeding season. About nine days pass between nesting events. The average clutch size of this particular species is around 110 eggs per nest, 85% of which are viable. The female carefully back-fills the nest after, disguising it from predators with a scattering of sand.

The eggs hatch in about sixty to seventy days. As with other reptiles, the ambient temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. After nightfall, the hatchlings dig their way to the surface and make their way to the sea.

b. Keep a small reptile in a terrarium and maintain a record of its care for three months.
Most pet shops carry turtles, lizards, and snakes, as well as the equipment needed to care for them (including terrariums). Pet store staff are generally very knowledgeable about caring for reptiles and will be able to answer your questions. They may also have brochures on reptile care.

Remember that pet reptiles (and amphibians, birds, and small mammals) should never be released into the wild. The main reason for this is that they may not be indigenous to the area and may cause severe ecological problems to the native populations. Further, they can easily spread disease to the native creatures. Even if none of these things come to pass, domestic pets are ill-equipped to survive in the wild, having not lived there in their past.

Therefore, in deciding whether or not to keep a pet reptile to meet this requirement, take this into consideration. If you misjudge your commitment to your reptile pet, you are responsible to find it another home. Under no circumstances should you release a pet into the wild.

7. Locate two Bible stories in which a reptile played an important part.
Eve tempted by the serpent in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3)

Moses and Aaron's staffs becoming snakes (Exodus 4 & 7)

People who were bit by snakes could look at bronze snake on pole to live (Numbers 21)

Paul was bitten by a viper, which he shook off into the fire. The people thought he was a god since he didn't die. (Acts 28)


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Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Reptiles - Advanced

2. What is the study of Reptiles called?
The study of reptiles is called herpetology. Herpetology also includes the study of amphibians. People who study herpetology are called herpetologists. The term "herps" is informally applied to reptiles and amphibians, and sometimes to herpetologists.

Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Christian missionary born in Roman Britain. When he was about sixteen he was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. He entered the church, as his father and grandfather had before him, becoming a deacon and a bishop. He later returned to Ireland as a missionary, working in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he actually worked and no link can be made with Patrick and any church.

The available body of evidence does not allow the dates of Patrick's life to be fixed with certainty, but it appears that he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the fifth century.

Legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island.

Hoop Snake
This folktale from Pennsylvania holds that there is a colorful and very deadly creature called a "hoop snake." The hoop snake holds its tail in its mouth forming a circle, and then travels by rolling like a wheel.

A farmer was out in his fields hoeing one day and saw a hoop snake coming towards him. He did not see the snake until it was nearly upon him, and he had no time to escape. Fearing that the end was near, he ducked behind his hoe just as the snake struck. The snake hit the hoe and its fangs were embedded in the handle. The farmer ran off in terror.

Knowing that the snake would not die until the sun set, the farmer waited until dark to retrieve his hoe. When he got back to the field, the snake was indeed quite dead, and its fangs were still deeply embedded in the hoe handle which had swelled up from the poison. The handle had swollen up so much that the farmer was able to split it up into enough shingles to put a new roof on his barn. But as soon as it rained, the water washed the poison out of the shingles and they shrank back to their normal size.

Black Snake and the Eggs
This folktale comes from Africa. It tells of a black snake which was able to hide itself beneath a chicken's nest. The chicken laid a dozen eggs, and as soon as she left toget food for herself, the snake went into the nest and ate an egg. He swallowed it down, and then crushed it with his strong abdominal muscles. Then he slithered back to his hiding place under the nest. When the hen returned, she noticed that one of her eggs was missing, so she went squawking to the rooster. While she was away, the snake grabbed two more eggs and hid itself again. When the rooster arrived, he suggested that perhaps the hen had miscounted. She insisted that she knew how to count and demanded that the rooster count them himself. Finding only nine eggs, the rooster allowed as how there might be a problem.

Over the next few days, the hen tried to watch her eggs as closely as possible, but every time she had to leave the nest, and egg or two would disappear. When she was down to one egg, the rooster suggested that the likely culprit was the black snake. "He's very sneaky and he loves eggs" he explained. "That last egg of yours is just as doomed as the first eleven."

The hen was more clever than the snake thought she was, and set a trap for the snake. When she left her nest, the snake grabbed the last egg and forced it down his gullet so that he could crush it. But try as he might, the snake could not crush the egg. He soon found that the egg was blocking his airway, and died in short order. The rooster was surprised. "Why couldn't he crush the last egg?" he asked. The hen replied, "Because it was hard boiled."

4. Why might it be that a major portion of humans fear reptiles and there are so many false stories involving reptiles?
Snakes are vilified in Judeo-Christianity because of their association with the Garden of Eden. Some snakes are indeed poisonous, and their bites can be fatal to people. Because of this, and out of an abundance of caution, people are taught to fear snakes. It is easier to fear all snakes than it is to identify and respect only the poisonous ones.

Snakes are almost always smaller than reported. For example, people in New England routinely report seeing snakes eight to ten feet long, but only very rarely do Northern Water Snakes exceed three and a half feet long. Perhaps the size of the snake is amplified by the sensation of fear.

 * 1) University of Massachusetts

Snakes
The primary line of defense with which snakes are endowed, is their coloration. There are two strategies employed; camouflage, and bright, warning colors. Most snakes are difficult to see when they are hiding because their colors blend in with their environment. Other snakes have brightly colored skin which serves as a warning (even if a false warning) that the snake is poisonous and should be avoided.

The second line of defense employed by snakes is to get away. Snakes are surprisingly elusive and can scurry beneath a log, or find a hole in the ground very quickly.

The last line of defense is for the snake to threatened whatever is threatening it. If this is not effective, the snake may attack. Often these attacks do not include venom, as the venom's primary purpose is for subduing prey. But even a non-envenomated bite can be very painful, and most aggressors know this instinctively.

Turtles
Turtles protect themselves by attempting to escape first, and withdrawing into their shells second. In some cases, they too may bite. It is for this that the snapping is named, and aptly so, as they can snap with amazing speed and power - a large adult snapper can easily bite off a finger or toe.

Lizards
Lizards employ camouflage more often than not, and some, such as the chameleon, are masters at it, having the ability to change the color of their own skin to match their surroundings. Lizards are also fast runners and can often escape this way. If caught, the tails of many lizards will detach, leaving the predator with a measly little snack, and letting the lizard escape with its life. The tail can be regrown.

Crocodilians
For crocodiles and alligators, the best defense is a good offense. These animals are apex predators, and as such, face very few threats from other creatures (man aside). These animals also have a very thick, protective skin, so that even if attacked by another predator, an incredible amount of force must be applied to a very sharp tooth or claw to puncture the skin. Meanwhile, the croc counter-attacks with its formidable tail, teeth, and jaws. Only the most desperate predator would dare attack a full-grown member of the crocodile family.

6. What are the two primary types of reptile poisons and how do they affect their target prey or enemy?
Technically, reptiles do not have poison, they have venom. There is a difference between organisms that are "venomous" and those that are "poisonous", two commonly confused terms applied to plant and animal life. Venomous refers to animals that inject venom into their prey when hunting or as a self-defense mechanism. Poisonous, on the other hand, describes plants or animals that are harmful when consumed or touched.

But to answer the question, the two types of venom found in reptiles are hemotoxic and neurotoxic. Hemotoxic venom attacks the blood, preventing it from clotting and damaging the blood vessels. Neurotoxic venom attacks the nervous system, causing respiratory difficulty, paralysis, and heart failure.

7. Identify in the wild at least half of your list from requirement 2 of the basic honor.
Requirement 2 from the basic honor reads thusly:

Again, we refer you to http://enature.org and Field Guide to Reptiles.

8. Find a reptile in the wild and record your observations of its activity during the daylight hours of one or more days.
It is not necessary for the days of observation to be consecutive. Lizards often stay in the same area over a period of time, so they might be the easiest for you to repeatedly find. They often hang around near the outside (or inside!) of a house. If you see one on a given day, the chances are pretty good that you will see the same individual in the same place on the next day as well. If you do not see it again the next day, keep looking. You are highly likely to see it again within a week or so.

Do not attempt to capture the reptile, but rather, observe it in its natural environment. Animals in captivity do not behave the same way as animals in the wild, so capturing it would defeat the purpose of the observation. Take pictures if you like, and jot down a few notes.

/Completed Honors


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User talk:FallonSDA

Welcome
Hi FallonSDA - welcome to Wikibooks, and in particular, welcome to the AY Honor Answer Wikibook. Thanks for contributing to the project. Your help is greatly appreciated.

I would like to add you to the list of authors on the Infopage, but to do that, I'd rather add your real name as opposed to your username. Even if you'd rather not be added to the list, I would still love it if you'd drop me a note.

Thanks again. Jim Thomas 14:27, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:FallonSDA


text:
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Rocks & Minerals

1. Distinguish between rocks and minerals.
A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition and a crystalline structure formed by geological processes. A rock is an aggregate of one or more minerals. (A rock may also include organic remains and mineraloids.) Some rocks are predominantly composed of just one mineral. For example, limestone is a sedimentary rock composed almost entirely of the mineral calcite. Other rocks contain many minerals, and the specific minerals in a rock can vary widely. Some minerals, like quartz, mica or feldspar are common, while others have been found in only one or two locations worldwide.

2. Have a collection of at least fifteen specimens correctly named. Label each specimen with collector's name, date, and locality in which it was found.
Identifying rocks and minerals is best done with a Field Guide. The following properties are very useful for identification purposes:

 * Hardness
 * Cleavage
 * Specific gravity
 * Luster
 * Color
 * Streak
 * Texture
 * Crystalline structure

These are described in detail in requirements 4 and 5.

You will need a few tools for measuring various aspects of rocks. Not all of them are required, but the more of them that are available to you, the more successful you will be in identifying specimens.

 * Specific Gravity meter
 * Ceramic tile for determining "scratch" color
 * Magnifying glass
 * Hardness kit (you can use the following as a hardness kit as explained in requirement 4)
 * Fingernail
 * Copper penny
 * Knife blade
 * Window glass
 * Steel file

a. Igneous

 * Igneous: Igneous rock is formed when lava cools and solidifies.

b. Sedimentary

 * Sedimentary: Sedimentary rock is formed when sediments carried by wind or water settle and turn to stone.

c. Metamorphic

 * Metamorphic: Metamorphic rock is formed when another type of rock is transformed by great heat and pressure.

4. What is meant by Mohs' scale of hardness? Name the minerals in order in Mohs' scale.
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science.

Mohs based the scale on ten minerals that are all readily available. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance, diamond is at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs scale is 4.5.

The Mohs scale is a purely ordinal scale. For example, corundum (9) is twice as hard as topaz (8), but diamond (10) almost four times as hard as corundum. The table below shows comparison with absolute hardness measured by a sclerometer.

On the Mohs scale, fingernail has hardness 2.5; copper penny, about 3.5; a knife blade, 5.5; window glass, 6.5; steel file, 6.5. Using these ordinary materials of known hardness can be a simple way to approximate the position of a mineral on the scale.

Some mnemonics traditionally taught to geology students to remember this table are "The Girls Can Flirt And Other Queer Things Can Do" or "To Get Candy From Aunt Fanny, Quit Teasing Cousin Danny". Another Mnemonic is "Two Gypsies Called Flo And Fred Queued To Cut Diamonds."

An alternative table is shown below which has been modified to incorporate additional substances that may fall in between two levels.

Source: American Federation of Mineralogical Societies: Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness

5. Define cleavage, specific gravity, luster, color, streak, texture, crystal.
The terms that follow have specific meaning in mineralogy, and are useful for identifying the type of a specimen of rock or mineral. To the uneducated eye, a rock is a rock is a rock. But if the following terms are understood, noted, and cross-checked against known values for various specimens, a positive identification can be made.

b. Specific gravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a material relative to the density of water. Density is the ratio of an object's mass to its volume. For instance, we know that 1 cm^3 of water weighs 1 gram. Therefore, the density of water is:

 * $$density_{water} = \frac{1 gram}{1 cm^3} = 1g/cm^3$$

A cubic centimeter of diamond would weigh 3.52 grams, so we can calculate the density of diamond as:

 * $$density_{diamond} = \frac{3.52 grams}{1 cm^3} = 3.52g/cm^3$$

Finally, we can calculate the specific gravity (G) of diamond:

 * $$G = \frac{density_{specimen}}{density_{water}} = \frac{3.52g/cm^3}{1g/cm^3} = 3.52$$

Division by 1 is a lovely thing!

What this really boils down to is that any given volume of diamond will weigh 3.52 times more than an equal volume of water. If you know the specific gravity, $$G$$ of any material, you will know that it weighs $$G$$ times an equal volume of water.

But what use is specific gravity? It helps us identify a mineral. We can measure a sample's specific gravity and compare it to the specific gravities of known specimens. To do this, we will need to make two measurements: the weight of the specimen, and its volume. Weight is easy (assuming you have a scale or a balance that can measure grams), but how do you measure the volume of an irregularly shaped specimen? All you need is some water, a drop of dish soap, and a graduated cylinder marked in metric units (note that 1 milliliter equals 1 cubic centimeter). Put some water in the cylinder, adding enough until the level comes to a convenient, well-marked level (such as 100 ml). Add a drop of dish soap to break the surface tension (you won't need more than a tiny drop). Then drop the specimen into the water and note the new water level. Subtracting the new level from the old will give you the volume of the specimen. Now all you need to do is divide the weight in grams by the volume in milliliters.

d. Color
Color indicates the appearance of the mineral in reflected light (for opaque specimens) or transmitted light (for translucent specimens). In other words, it means just what you would think it means - what it looks like to the naked eye. Before noting the color of a specimen, it is important to clean it off.

f. Texture
Texture in geology refers to the physical appearance or character of a rock, such as grain size, shape, and arrangement, both to the naked eye and under a microscope.

g. Crystal
A crystal is a solid whose atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. Snowflakes, diamonds, and common salt are common examples of crystals.

Uses for Rock

 * Building material
 * Gravel
 * Paving stones
 * Grinding grain into meal (millstones)
 * Sharpening blades (whetstones)
 * Sculpture medium (marble, granite, others)
 * Fill material
 * Fuel (coal)
 * Ores (most metals are extracted from ore)

Uses for Minerals

 * Abrasives (diamond dust, garnet, others)
 * Lasers (sapphire, ruby)
 * Electronics (semiconductors)
 * Lenses (quartz)
 * Nutrition (your body needs many minerals)
 * Traction (silica - also known as sand)
 * Currency (gold, silver, copper)
 * Pencil lead (graphite)
 * Lubricant (graphite)
 * Medicine (Kaopectate is made from the mineral kaolin)

7. Tell of four Bible incidents in which a rock was significant.

 * Numbers 20 : 2-13: God commands Moses to speak to the rock to provide water for the Israelites but Moses hits it instead.
 * 1 Samuel 17: David kills Goliath with a stone.
 * John 11 : 38-44: Jesus orders that the stone covering the tomb of Lazarus be removed.
 * Matthew 7 : 24-29: The parable of the wise and foolish builders.
 * Acts 6-7: The stoning of Steven.

8. What are the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem?
Revelation 21:19,20 describes the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem.

The wall has twelve foundation stones, and on these are written the names of the Twelve Apostles. Revelation lacks a list of the names of the Twelve Apostles, and does not describe which name is inscribed on which foundation stone, or if all of the names are inscribed on all of the foundation stones, so that aspect of the arrangement is open to speculation. One scholar hold that Judas Iscariot's name is absent from the foundations, replaced by that of another Apostle.

These foundation stones are adorned with twelve types of precious stones. In modern times, the precise identification of all these precious stones is not certain, as several of the ancient names may refer to several different types of stones, or may no longer refer to the same kinds of stones that they did at the time of Revelation's writing. Also, the layout of the precious stones is contested. All of the precious stones could adorn each foundation stone, either in layers or mixed together some other way, or just one unique type of stone could adorn each separate foundation stone.


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Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Seeds - Advanced

2. Identify from drawings and know the purpose of each of the following parts of a seed: endosperm, radicle, plumule, micropyle.

 * Endosperm: Endosperm is the tissue produced in the seeds of most flowering plants around the time of fertilization. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and protein.
 * Radicle: The radicle is the first part of a seedling (a growing plant embryo) to emerge from the seed during the process of germination. The radicle is the embryonic root of the plant, and grows downward in the soil.
 * Plumule: The plumule is the embryonic shoot. It is the precursor to the stem and leaves of the plant.

 * Micropyle: The micropyle is an opening in a plant's ovule (the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells). The micropyle opening allows the pollen tube to enter the ovule for fertilization. In gymnosperms (e.g. conifers), the pollen itself is drawn into the ovule and the micropyle opening closes after pollination. During germination, the seedling's radicle emerges through the micropyle.

3. Know several differences between a monocotyledon seed and a dicotyledon seed, and give three examples of each.
In monocotyledons (or simply monocots), the seed embryo has one cotyledon while the embryo of the dicotyledon (or dicot) has two. The major leaf veins in a monoct are parallel, but they are branched in a dicot. The flower parts (petals, sepals, etc.) in monocots are multiples of three while in dicots are multiples of four or five.

Monocots

 * Corn
 * Grasses (such as wheat, rye, barley, etc.)
 * Lilies
 * Onions, garlic

Dicots

 * Roses
 * Asters
 * Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, etc.)
 * Squash, pumpkin
 * Beans

5. How does a seed differ from a spore?
A chief difference between spores and seeds as dispersal units is that spores have very little stored food resources compared with seeds, and thus require more favorable conditions in order to successfully germinate. Seeds, therefore, are more resistant to harsh conditions and require less energy to start cell division. Spores are usually produced in large numbers to increase the chance of a spore surviving.

6. Write or tell orally two spiritual lessons we may learn from seeds. You will find help in Christ's Object Lessons by Ellen G. White, pages 33 to 89.
You can read this text online or you can get a copy of the book at The Adventist Book Center.

This text is a discourse on the parable of the sower as found in Matthew 13. Ellen White illustrates several spiritual lessons based on this parable.

==7. Make a collection of 60 different kinds of seeds, of which only 15 may be collected from commercial seed packages, the other 45 you are to collect yourself. Label each kind as follows: seed name, date collected, location collected, and collector’s name. ==

8. Have in your collection four kinds of seeds from each of two families of plants, showing the similarity between the seeds of plants in any one family.
The two families of plants are the moncots and the dicots. To see the difference, cut a corn kernel and a bean in half. The corn seed will be difficult to divide, but the bean will almost divide itself in half at the boundary between the two cotyledons.


text:
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Shells

1. What is the meaning of the term "mollusk"?
Mollusk is another name for shellfish. A mollusk is a soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, typically with a hard shell of one or more pieces. The word "mollusk" comes from the Latin meaning "soft, flexible, tender" referring to the mollusk's soft body parts.

2. Identify from shells or drawings the following
We present here a diagram that features many, many more details of a mollusk's anatomy than are called out in this requirement. See the features depicted in bold text are required - the rest are just additional information.

 * a. Mantle: The mantle is an organ covering the soft parts of a mollusk. It secrets calcium carbonate to create the shell.
 * b. Foot: The foot is the largest visible portion of a mollusk other than the shell. It is the soft part that protrudes from the shell and touches the surface of whatever the mollusk is crawling on.
 * c. Teeth: The "teeth" of a mollosk are called radula by scientists. They are more like a jagged tongue than they are like teeth (see the diagram on the right).  Mollusks use them to chew food and to scrape algae from rocks.
 * d. Ribs: Ribs are any raised ridges on the surface of a shell.
 * e. Valve: A valve is half the shell of a mollusk with a two-part shell. The two valves are joined by a hinge.  These mollusks are called bivalves, and include clams, oysters, and mussels.
 * f. Dorsal border: The dorsal border is the edge of a bivalve's shell where the hinge is located.
 * g. Apex: The apex is the tip or point of the shell. It is not labeled in our diagram, though it is clearly visible (lower right).
 * h. Operculum: The operculum is a hard structure situated at the end of the foot, and is used to seal off the entry to the shell. You can think of it as a combination shoe/door.
 * i. Canal: Many marine gastropods are burrowers, and have soft siphons or tubes that extend from the mantle. Sometimes the shell has a siphonal canal to accommodate this structure. These siphons act as snorkels, enabling the animal to continue to draw in a water current containing oxygen and food into their bodies. The siphons are also used to "taste" the water, in order to detect prey from a distance.

3. Are all shells found on beaches? Where else are they found? What areas of the world offer the largest variety of shells?
Shells are found in many places other than the beach, including river banks, river bottoms, lake shores, lake bottoms, and the seafloor. They are also found on land, as snails belong to the mollusk phylum.

The Caribbean and the Western Pacific are home to the largest variety of shells.

4. Describe the movement of shells from place to place.
Mollusks have several methods of getting around, depending on the species. Some have tiny hair-like structures on the foot called cilia which they use to propel themselves through a slimy substance they secrete. Others generate waves of motion along the length of the foot. Still others pump water through their shells and let the resulting jet push them forward.

Mollusks can also be moved by water currents.

5. How do shell animals protect themselves?
Mollusks pull the soft portion of their bodies into their shells and seal the entry with their operculum. They can also burrow below the surface of the seafloor, river banks, river bottoms, or lake banks and lake bottoms.

6. How are shells made and from what materials are they made?
Shells are formed when the animal secretes calcium carbonate from the mantel. The calcium carbonate hardens into a shell. The apex of the shell is formed first, and as the animal grows, more is added to the shell at the opening.

7. List and explain five uses made of shells by man.
Shells have been used by man in the following ways:
 * Money: Shells have been used in many cultures as a form of money.
 * Buttons: Buttons were originally cut from shells. Plastic buttons we use today still resembled the pearly surface of the inside of a seashell.
 * Adornment: Many cultures made (and make) jewelry from shells. Holes can be drilled into shells to make beads.  Shells are also inlaid into wood in an artform called intarsia (also in marquetry and parquetry).
 * Hair combs: Shells have been cut to shape and used to comb hair.
 * Fret board markers: The markers (often round dots) between the frets on the fingerboard of a guitar (or other stringed instrument) are made of shell.
 * Utensils: Shells were used to make spoons, knives, cups, and dishes by primitive cultures.
 * Chemistry: Shells are made from calcium carbonate, a chemical useful in the laboratory. Calcium carbonate is widely used medicinally as an inexpensive dietary calcium supplement or antacid. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry as a base material for tablets of other pharmaceuticals.
 * Lime: Seashells can be crushed to make lime which is used to raise the pH level in soil.

8. Explain the terms "univalve" and "bivalve" as applied to shells.
A bivalve is a mollusk with a two-part shell, such as an oyster, clam, scallop, or mussel. A univalve is a mollusk with a one-part shell, such as a snail, conch, or whelk.

Bivalves
Bivalves typically have two-part shells, with both valves being symmetrical along the hinge line. The class has 30,000 species, including scallops, clams, oysters and mussels.

Bivalves are exclusively aquatic; they include both marine and freshwater forms. However some, for instance the mussels, can survive out of water for short periods by closing their valves.

Bivalves are unique among the molluscs for lacking a radula; they feed by siphoning and filtering large particles from water. Some bivalves are epifaunal: that is, they attach themselves to surfaces in the water, by means of a byssus or organic cementation. Others are infaunal: they bury themselves in sand or other sediments. These forms typically have a strong digging foot. Some bivalves, such as scallops, can swim.

The radical structure of the bivalves affects their behavior in several ways. the most significant is the use of the closely-fitting valves as a defense against predation and, in intertidal species such as mussels, drying out. The entire animal can be contained within the shell, which is held shut by the powerful adductor muscles. This defense is difficult to overcome except by specialist predators such as the Starfish and Oyster Catcher.

Gastropods
The gastropods, also previously known as gasteropods, or univalves, and more commonly known as snails and slugs, are the largest and most successful class of mollusks, with 60,000-75,000 known living species. This class of animals is second only to insects in its size and diversity.

The class Gastropoda includes very large numbers of marine snails and sea slugs, as well as the freshwater snails, and the terrestrial (land) snails and slugs.

Although the word snail can be, and often is, applied to all the members of this class, very commonly the word "snail" is restricted only to those species which have an external shell. Those without a shell, or with only a very reduced or internal shell, are often known as slugs.

The marine shelled species of gastropod include abalone, cowries, conches, periwinkles, whelks, so the word snail can be used to apply to them and the majority of other sea snails which have coiled seashells. There are also a number of families of species where the shell is coiled only in the larval stage, such as all the various limpets.

Cephalopods
The class Cephalopod contains two subclasses. In the Coleoidea, the mollusk shell has been internalized or is absent; this subclass includes the octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. In the Nautiloidea the shell remains; this subclass includes the nautilus. There are around 786 distinct living species of Cephalopods.

Chitons
Chitons or coat of mail shells are small to large, primitive marine mollusks in the class Polyplacophora. There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class Polyplacophora.

Chitons are also sometimes commonly called sea cradles and they may also be referred to as loricates, polyplacophorans, and rarely polyplacophores.

Chitons have a shell composed of eight separate but shelly plates, which are held together with a structure known as a girdle.

Chitons live on hard surfaces such as on or under rocks, or in rock crevices. Some species live quite high in the intertidal zone and are exposed to the air and light for long periods. Others live subtidally. A few species live in deep water, as deep as.

Chitons have shells made up of eight overlapping calcareous valves held together and surrounded by a girdle. In many species the surface of the girdle is covered in, or decorated with, scales, hair-like protrusions, or glassy bristles.

After a chiton dies, the individual valves which make up the 8-part shell come apart, and may sometimes wash up in beach drift. The individual shelly plates from a chiton are sometimes called "butterfly shells" because of their shape.

Tusk Shells
The tusk shells vary in size from very small to medium sized. The official name of this class is Scaphopoda, meaning "shovel-footed".

These mollusks live on soft substrates offshore (usually not intertidally). Because of this subtidal habitat and their small size, many beachcombers are unfamiliar with them; their shells are usually not nearly as common or as easily visible in the beach drift as the shells of sea snails and clams.

10. Make a collection of 20 different shells, classify them, and tell where each is found and when it came into your possession.
You can collect shells on beaches or buy them at craft stores. If buying them, it is cheaper to buy a variety pack rather than getting them individually. Once you have 20 different types of shells, you can begin the process of identifying them. For this you will need a field guide such as one of these:

 * National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells
 * Seashells of North America: A Guide to Field Identification

You may be able to find a field guide at your local library too.

Source of Pearls
A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. The finest quality pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and the word pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, and admirable.

Technically speaking, under the right set of circumstances almost any shelled mollusk can produce some kind of "pearl". However, most molluscan "pearls" have no luster or iridescence. In fact, the great majority of mollusk species produce pearls which are not attractive to look at, and not durable, such that they usually have no value at all, except perhaps to a scientist, or as a curiosity.

Desirable pearls are produced by two very different groups of molluscan bivalves or clams: marine pearl oysters from the family Pteriidae and freshwater pearl mussels from the order Unionida, families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae. These two families of bivalves have shell linings that are composed of nacre, or "mother of pearl" as it is more commonly known. A valuable natural pearl is entirely made from layers of nacre, using the same spontaneous process as is used in the creation of the nacre lining the shell.

Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain bivalve mollusks. As a response to an irritant inside its shell, the mollusk creates a pearl to seal off the irritation.

The mantle of the mollusk deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the minerals aragonite or calcite (both crystalline forms of calcium carbonate) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin. This combination of calcium carbonate and conchiolin is called nacre, or as most know it, mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely the case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the animal's body. These small particles or organisms enter the animal when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration.

Spiritual Lessons
There are many spiritual lessons that can be drawn from a pearl. First is that pearls are fairly rare, and highly valuable. When Jesus told his parable of the pearl, everyone in his audience understood that if a person were to find a pearl in nature, it would be his free for the taking, and it would make him rich. Jesus was offering them eternal life - also free for the taking, and highly valuable.

A second lesson can be drawn from the way a pearl is made. It starts out as an irritant which the mollusk covers and turns into an item of beauty. In the same way, Christ covers our irritants with his robe of righteousness, converting us from miserable, doomed sinners into heirs of the eternal kingdom.

E.G. White Comments
Ellen White's book Christ's Object Lessons can be read online. The pages called out here can be found here.

12. Match the Bible texts that best answers A-J
All scripture passages below are from the New International Version.

 * a. Water creatures were created on what day?:
 * And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20, 21 NIV

 * b. The number of water creatures is innumerable.:
 * There is the sea, vast and spacious,
 * teeming with creatures beyond number—
 * living things both large and small. Psalms 104:25

 * c. Water creatures perish out of water.:
 * When I came, why was there no one?
 * When I called, why was there no one to answer?
 * Was my arm too short to ransom you?
 * Do I lack the strength to rescue you?
 * By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,
 * I turn rivers into a desert;
 * their fish rot for lack of water
 * and die of thirst. Isaiah 50:2

 * d. Job considered coral of great value.:
 * Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies. Job 28:18

 * e. Solomon was acquainted with marine life.:
 * He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 1 Kings 4:33

 * f. Jesus twice used a shell product to teach a spiritual lesson.:
 * "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.  Matthew 7:6

 * "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45,46

 * g. A businesswoman was engaged in selling the famous purple dyes secured from the shellfish Mediterranean Murex.:
 * One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Acts 16:14

 * h. Paul does not support the wearing of pearl:
 * I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. 1 Timothy 2:9

 * i. Shell creatures are unfit for food.:
 * " 'Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest. Leviticus 11:9,10

 * j. The twelve gates of Holy City are twelve pearls.:
 * The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. Revelation 21:21


text:
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Shrubs

1. Note three characteristics of shrubs that distinguish them from trees and herbs. Why is a grape vine sometimes regarded as a shrub?
These are the differences between trees and shrubs:
 * 1) Shrubs do not grow as tall as trees, generally not reaching higher than.
 * 2) A shrub's trunk has a circumference of less than  at  above the ground.
 * 3) Shrubs often have multiple trunks, while trees generally have a single, central trunk.

On the other end of the spectrum, herbs are seed-bearing plants without woody stems, which die down to the ground after flowering. Shrubs are also seed-bearing, but they have woody stems which remain over the winter.

Why is the grapevine considered a shrub? Let's consider what we know about grapevines in light of the above definition of a shrub:
 * 1) Grapevines have woody stems
 * 2) Grapevines are less than  around.
 * 3) Grapevines do not grow over  on their own - they may climb a tree to reach that height, but on their own, they cannot get that tall.  If a grapevine has nothing to climb, it will take on the form of a shrub.

2. Name three important wild or cultivated food shrubs of your locality. Name a shrub that produces edible nuts.
Some important food shrubs include:
 * Grape
 * Highbush blueberry
 * Lowbush blueberry
 * Blackberry
 * Raspberry
 * Mulberry
 * Cranberry
 * Fig
 * Pomegranate
 * Kumquat
 * Guava
 * Red Currant
 * Black Currant
 * Gooseberry
 * Juneberries
 * Serviceberry
 * Elderberry

Even if people do not eat the food these shrubs provide, they are an important source of food for wildlife.

The hazel is a genus of about ten species of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. Species include the Common Hazel and the Filbert, both of which produce edible nuts with which most of us are familiar.

3. Name two cultivated shrubs and two wild shrubs of your locality that produce showy flowers.
These shrubs grow in many areas. The table below indicates where the plants grow in the wild, and where they are cultivated.

4. Do most shrubs blossom in the spring, summer, or autumn? Name one shrub whose flowers open before the leaves appear.
Most shrubs bloom in the spring.

6. Give an example of a shrub whose leaves in autumn turn from green to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, or red.
The Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum) is a deciduous shrub or tree native to northeastern North America from Saskatchewan to Newfoundland, and south to Pennsylvania. It also grows at high elevations in the southern Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. Mountain Maple grows 3–8 m tall, forming a spreading shrub or small tree having a short trunk and slender branches. The leaves turn brilliant yellow to red in autumn, and are on slender stalks usually longer than the blade.

Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) is another shrub with yellow to orange to red fall foliage. This plant is native to the Eastern United States from New Jersey to Louisiana. It has beautiful white flowers in the spring.

Fothergilla (Fothergilla) is a genus of shrubs that produces gold, orange, and scarlet foliage in the fall.

7. Observe some shrub which is in bloom and list as many kinds of insects as you can (at least three) which come to its blossoms for pollen or nectar.
Because most shrubs bloom in the spring, this honor will be easiest to earn during that season. Some shrubs hold their blossoms through the summer, and a few will even bloom well into autumn. Witch Hazel is a very unusual shrub in that it does not bloom until October or November. During this time, it may have on its branches yellow leaves, full blossoms, and ripe nuts from the previous year's flowers - all at the same time.

This requirement will effectively prevent you from teaching this honor in the winter, but it would be a wonderful honor to offer during the Pathfinder "off season" (that is, during the summer) on a Sabbath afternoon.

Compare this requirement with requirement 6e of the Flowers honor (this is also a requirement that can optionally be used in Flowers - Advanced).

8. From what shrubs do birds prefer to eat the fruit or seeds? Name a shrub whose flowers attracts birds.
Birds love to eat berries from almost any kind of shrub that produces them. Serviceberries, juneberries, currants, mulberry, elderberry, are all very popular with birds, as are blueberries, gooseberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Birds also like to eat the berries from viburnums, spicebush, winterberries, hollies, and dogwoods.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers of the honeysuckle, as they produce a sweet nectar (some people eat honeysuckle nectar too).

9. In what shrubs do birds prefer to build their nests?
Birds like to build their nests in shrubs that offer lots of protection from the weather and from predators. Shrubs that provide nesting include dogwoods, viburnums, bayberry, and juniper.

 * http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/attracting/landscaping/shrubs

10. Collect, preserve, and correctly identify the flowers, leaves, seeds, seed pods, or twigs with buds of ten wild shrubs.
For this requirement, we recommend that you use a good field guide. Here are some suggestions:

 * A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides) by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson.  Note that this book is also very useful for earning the Edible Wild Plants honor, as well as the Pioneering and Wilderness Living honors.
 * Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs (Peterson Field Guide Series) by George A Petrides
 * Flowering Shrubs: A Magna Field Guide by Jaromir Pokorny