| Manticore
Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: *Nom nom nom*
Posts: 43,198
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Mercer Branxton
Ravenclaw Seventh Year
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|  Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee
SPOILER!!: Responses Quote:
Originally Posted by MunchyBubbles  Kam wasn’t sure if her answer was good or not, but it would have to do. Especially as they were now moving on and she had to rack her brain for what an ecosystem was, or even give an example of a food chain.
Uhhhh..
Her mind fully and totally blanked.. if it was a magical question, she would totally be right there.. but biology? She shifted her weight a little and crossed her arms and became oh so fascinated with the dirt under her feet.
Wasn’t it fun? Oh so dirt like!
Her blue eyes were glued to it as she didn’t respond and hope no one would notice her casually looking at the ground.
Nothing to see here. Wow, he’d broken one of them already. Cornish raised an eyebrow at the girl and watched her study the dirt like it held the secrets of the universe. It probably did, considering the whole ‘life cycle’ theme they had going right now. “Keighley. If the dirt is more interesting than I am, I’m going to give up teaching immediately.” Not to put too much on her shoulders.
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Originally Posted by Jessiqua For a very tense second there Hanna was sure he was about to give her a telling-off or something. But no, it seemed to be accepted and Hanna relaxed her shoulders ever so slightly.
Thinking about ecosystems, one area of CoMC that was definitely theory and therefore more enjoyable to this Ravenclaw, Hanna raised her hand. "An ecosystem describes an area and how all of the living and non-living things in that area interact."
Thinking back to the things people said, Hanna realised she couldn't very well remember the food chain of many of these animals. Perhaps she could for moss, or even bacteria, but she could hardly remember what each of these creatures consumed, and which creatures those creatures consumed, and so forth. What species would die off, or take over, if any of those creatures were to disappear? “Right, and the interaction is key,” Cornish gave the girl ANOTHER nod… and he was sure that he was going to ruin her with all this rampant praise and attention. “And I bet if you really try, you can figure out an example. Hop to it.”
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Originally Posted by Kolyander Huh?
Rylee appeared slightly confused at the Professors question of her well-being. She was quite alright. Perfectly in fact. There was nothing at all to see here. Did she look ill to him? "I'm alright, Professor," she smiled more warmly at the man this time around. Nothing at all was wrong here. No cause to worry. Yet. All worrying could be left until she had to get into the water.
For the first question Rylee remained quiet, inwardly cringing at the mention of Grindylow. Her gaze subconsciously drifted down towards her left leg where she knew there to be fading claw marks. For several long moments she found herself reliving that day during a part Creatures Companion lesson. It was a day she really didn't want to remember. Shudder.
Letting out a slow breath she was able to pull herself back to the here and now just in time for the next question. Raising her hand she decided to give an example of a food chain since Hanna explained what an ecosystem was. "A small food chain could be algae, fish and grindylow." Mhmm. Oddly enough she went with the one creature she wasn't fond of. “Yes. And take it one further. What feeds the algae? What eats the grindylow? It’s a circle, not a straight line, so bring it back around.” Not that he’d push all of them further than they were willing to travel, but the big smiles made him want to… y’know. Stretch her a bit.
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Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie ........and people thought he was the one with the ego?
Staring at the man almost vacuously when the professor not only also corrected Dooley after he already had and entirely discredited the Slytherin doing so, but then expected the fourth year to offer up another answer. No thanks. He had contributed to that vein and would pass on any subsequent responses there.
And this question as well.
Instead, while talk of ecosystems went on, Eiji positioned himself behind Nina and that Ravenclaw bloke so he could set to waterproofing his clothes. Costumes were not on his agenda today either, thanks. Muttering Impervius under his breath, he began working on his shoes first and then his trousers. His shirt he did not care about getting wet - frankly, he didn't care about his trousers and shoes either but he was looking for something to occupy his time. That, and he could admire the primary producers of their surroundings - the plants and algae, to be exact. All things he would be collecting today with the phials tucked safely in his pockets.
“Rasting. A food chain involving an Acromantula. I want to hear your thoughts.”
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Originally Posted by Nordic Witch Ellie knew it had been a long shot but she was a little deflated to hear to that gillyweed couldn’t be found out here on the grounds. She dropped it next moment though as Professor Cornish asked them what they knew about ecosystems and food chains. She stood still trying to remember what her mother had told a few years ago. When she finally remembered Ellie raised her hand to answer. "A ecosystem is a community like for example our great lake where living organisms such as the merpeople live in conjunction with non-living components of their environment and they all interact in a system." Did that make sense?
For the second question Ellie tried to think of a forest example that was different from what Rylee had just said. She didn’t want to repeat and get looks from the other lioness. "Um a food chain if a muggle example is okay then grass , grasshopper, toad, snake and hawk." Hopefully at least one of her answers was okay. “Something like that.” Technically correct, although he felt like she was trying really hard to impress him. Trust the man when he said it: he was impressed by a 40-foot curl, by the flash of sun off a merrow fin, those unicorns they’d seen a few weeks back, but he wasn’t impressed by any answers they could give. They had to do a little work, get their hands dirty, first. “Good example, and those are all plants and animals you could find at Hogwarts.”
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Originally Posted by ArianaBlack Though Eiji was correct about the eye rolls and wrinkled noses, he was off about the long string of complaints. Nina planned to keep those to herself, she had nothing but disdain for this class (and their Professor), but she knew better than to disrespect an adult. Only idiots and Gryffindors (often synonymous) would do such a reckless thing. While Nina wasn’t desperate for their Professor’s praise—a unique quality, apparently—she’d rather not spend her spare time in detention. It would be an absolute waste.
The mutterings of her housemate elicited a subtle smirk. Nina didn’t know why he was so unhappy about the costumes, but it would be dishonest to say that she wasn’t entertained by it. The smug look on her features was entirely too short lived, as his sharp jab managed to wipe the look off her face in one swift motion. Remember those eye rolls Eiji had mentioned? They were quite deadly and he was now on the receiving end of one himself.
Normally she would have given him a sharp jab right back, but Professor Cornish took care of that rather immediately. His dismissal of Eiji’s response was actually a welcome surprise. Typically Nina found everything about the Creature’s Professor to be off-putting. But this, this actually elicited the TINIEST stifled giggle from the sour Slytherin. Yes, she was quite smug. And still had her lips pursed, for the record.
Also, why did he keep looking at her like that? Like she was the best student he had ever had? Honestly, it was SO weird.
Nina hated it. His praise only amplified her demeanor.
And again, the next question posed to the class was another highly insulting attempt to fish for mundane responses and unnecessary contributions. Again, Nina found herself quite disinterested in the simplistic and ill-thought out answers of her peers. Of course an ecosystem was a system. It was written within the word itself. Why the Gryffindor deemed that as a meritorious remark to share with the class was absolutely beyond her. It must be a horrible thing to be sorted into Gryffindor house. To be surrounded by an entire Common Room of peers who didn’t see their brain as a vital organ sounded like a living hell.
It was a wonder as to how some of the kids had made it this far. Again, when it was her turn to speak she offered her answer with the same tense-stance and subtle distaste, ”the sun, algae, water-snails, plimpies, humans, acromantulas.” Land and water based, though she wasn’t feeling creative so it’d be best that he didn’t think otherwise.
Why wasn’t this class over yet? Land and water based. Showing off in spite of how hard she pretended not to want to be there. Classic Castillo. Cornish gave her a little salute. “Fine. That answer was fine.”
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Originally Posted by gritandgrace As always, Eniola loves to learn and hearing questions that cause some of her classmates to think is always nice for her because she gets to learn other's thought processes and how they will communicate it. People really can be fascinating. Annoying sometimes...but fascinating.
"Well, going off of my previous answer. Seaweed uses photosynthesis so it doesn't eat anything, but it does use the sun and the water and the seaweed itself is food for many creatures like sea urchins for example, then going up the food chain from there you'd have crabs, seals, orca or killer whales and lastly humans. Although there are plenty of animals that will eat humans as well like acromantula, crocodiles, tigers and more than I could probably name or that you care to use the time for." Eni finished. Whew, that was a lot of talking! She thought to herself as she tried to then fade into the background having answered the question. A bit long-winded, but hey - he asked. That was every food chain in the entire universe. Well, at least on this planet. “Certainly a complete answer, Abara, although we don’t have orcas or tigers at Hogwarts. I’m pretty sure Professor Beryl is part crocodile.” Just a musing, but he had a good sense of these things.
Fair examples from the lot of them, and they must get the idea by now. Ecosystems. Food chains. The balance of life at Hogwarts, not including the hundreds of students recklessly thundering around the place. They were not part of the balance. Cornish gathered his thoughts for a moment, since it wasn’t in anyone’s best interest for him to rant about living in harmony with their present ecosystem.
“I imagine that from the examples you’ve just heard, you’re getting a picture about how we’re all interrelated. And about how easy it would be for the entire place to go sideways. Think about that. Think about how adding extra fertilizer to the gardens could wash off into the lake, which would cause the algae to bloom more than it already does. Too much algae blocks the sun from the plants that grow in the shallows, kills off the creatures who feed and live there. And then the larger creatures, the predators, have nothing to eat, and they die off or leave. Just because we want our vegetables to grow.” He smiled, a surprising flash of teeth considering how everything in his story just died.
“So that’s terrible. But let’s just keep playing the game of terribles. I want you to think about what you’ve experienced at Hogwarts during your time here… the good and the bad, the intruders and the disasters. Think about what you’ve studied about past events at Hogwarts over the past thousand years. How do you think those events have impacted this ecosystem? And to be clear, I’m talking about the forest and the lake. Everything on the Hogwarts grounds, but not further. No more orca whales, please.” Big broad question here – how have historical events at Hogwarts impacted the ecosystem? You can keep answering past questions or you can ASK questions or you can keep refusing to answer us. The main event starts in 24 hours!
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