That's Life!

A few changes to this week’s plans
Wednesday – 4th six weeks test
Thursday – Bacteria/Virus Review
Friday – Bacteria and Virus Test (will go on 5th six weeks grades)

Today begins our more in-depth study of each biological kingdom.
Wednesday – Intro to bacteria and coloring and identifying the bacteria ultrastructure.
Thursday – Viruses on the Microviewer
Friday – Virus coloring and comparing and contrasting types of viruses.

Monday is an early release day!
Monday – Compare and contrast bacteria and viruses
Tuesday – Bacteria and Virus Notes
Wednesday – Bacteria and Virus Test

This week we are studying relationships between organisms and their environment. Today the students learned about the 3 symbiotic relationships and got to design their own symbiotic relationship. Tomorrow we will do an oil spill lab and then Wednesday we will be watching a video on the Rain Forest. Thursday will be notes and Friday a test.

I hope you have had a restful holiday break.
We will be watching Jurassic Park starting Monday to tie together our previous study of genetics, DNA, genetic engineering and evolution, which is our next unit.
On Tuesday, students will be taking a semester test using their scrapbook.
We should be concluding Jurassic park on Thursday along with an essay.
On Friday we will begin our evolution unit.

We have been busy this week learning about genetics and heredity.
We started off the unit with a lab exploring alleles, by crossing two heterozygous “pea seeds”. We also learned how to use Punnett Squares to predict offspring traits and finished today with creating an insect using multiple traits. Tomorrow we will explore non-Mendelian genetics.
Next Monday we will conclude with the notes from all of our activities, a review, and a test on Tuesday.
Students who are missing assignments or work, need to take care of that by Monday so that they are ready for the test.

This week will have our meiosis notes Monday and a mitosis/meiosis test on Tuesday.
Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

This week is the last week of the second six weeks. We will have a Unit test on Monday. The students have been buiilding a scrapbook with important biology informtion since the first week of school and they are able to use their scrapbooks for Unit Tests.
Tuesday we will get the mitosis notes and prepare for the test on Wednesday. I will try to post the updated notes this evening on the blog. Thursday, will begin our meiosis unit.

This week we will start our study of mitosis. We will be doing various activities while learning about mitosis and the stages of the cell cycle. Tuesday we will be in the computer lab doing a mitosis webquest. Wednesday-Microviewer Mitosis activity, Thursday will be Rockets Reaching Out, College Day and the thater department will present Sleeping Beauty. Friday – Karyotyping.

This week we will be completing the Egg Lab. Monday we took our eggs out of the vinegar and rinsed them off. The vinegar had dissolved the shell and added mass to the egg. Hmmm? Then we placed one egg in distilled water and one in corn syrup. What will happen tomorrow?

Tuesday we will see the effects of the water and corn syrup on the eggs and see if we can’t figure out why that happened.

Wednesday – Cell Transport Notes (new) and Test Review

Thursday – Cell Transport Test

Friday – Begin Cell Energy lesson

Students also received their 2nd six weeks project – They will each be making a Voki in the likeness of a biologist. We will be working on these 2 days in the computer lab. They are due on October 26.

Here is the instruction sheet for the Voki: Biologist Project

Yay! We’ve already made it past the first six weeks!
We had some tough tests last week and students will be given the opportunity to do corrections to increase their grades. The tests will continue to be tough as we learn a multitude of biology concepts as well as prepare for an End-of-Course biology exam in May. Questions will all focus on the information studied and the notes given in class but will address a range of levels from basic knowledge to application of concepts learned. Hand in there!
This week will be studying the cell membrane and intercellular transportation.
Monday – Intro to diffusion, Set up potato osmosis is plant cells lab
Tuesday – Complete Potato Lab
Wednesday – Cell transport drawings
Thursday – Complete cell transport drawings, Begin Egg Lab-Osmosis/Diffusion in Cells Lab, Review Unit Test
Friday – Continue collecting data from Egg lab.