Tuesday - homework - fix test

Students received their corrected tests back today. Those who are not pleased with their grades may correct each wrong answer to earn back half of their points. However, the answer must be correct, it must be a complete sentence, (a, b, c, d, t, f are not complete sentences) The sentence must be very specific. The work must be on a new sheet of paper and stapled to the test. Spelling must be correct. These rules help the student remember the material that they did not learn for the test.

Today we corrected homework, handed out oops cards and then played with the density of liquids. To see what we did you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3kodeQnQvU and watch a similar experiment. We also discussed mass, weight, density and volume.

Homework for tonight will be to fix your test. The fixed test must be turned in at the start of class Wednesday to receive credit.

Monday - test and homework - Good grief!

As students came into class today we began to review for our test. We went over all the vocabulary words and did the actions to help with any memory loss that occurred over the Thanksgiving Holidays. Students then took the test. We corrected the tests in class. I will review them and then hand the tests back to the students tomorrow.

On Tuesday students will take the tests home and fix them using correct spelling, correct answers and, as always, they must have complete sentences. True and false will not work. A B C D will not work. Each answer must have a complete sentence. The purpose of this is to teach the student the answer they did not know.

Homework tonight is reading E 2 - 15 and doing, in complete sentences, 1-5 on E 15. This is due at the start of class tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Since school was cancelled yesterday due to the blizzard, I wanted to let you know that we will be having the test on Monday after a review session. Grades had to be in by this Saturday so the test will be on next trimester's grades. I spent yesterday finishing the grades so the grade that is posted is your grade for the trimester. If you like it, remember next trimester to work just as hard. If you are unhappy with your grade, please make sure that next trimester you study more and come in for our study sessions. It is your life, and your future is determined by your actions today. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Monday - Cells and Biomes test tomorrow

We reviewed for the test today by having a matching game, one with the cells and one with biomes. Then students finished drawing their biomes. The test will be tomorrow. Students that have told me that they will be gone have been allowed to take the test early.

Thursday - test on Tuesday

Today we reviewed yesterday's information on a power point presentation. To review this read through pages B 71 - 128. This information is not on the test, but it is really interesting and good information to know.

We also reviewed the cells and biomes in preparation for the test. On Monday we will do a complete review for the test. Then the test will be on Tuesday.

Students will be out of school for Thanksgiving break starting on Wednesday next week. Go and do something kind for the people who take care of you everyday.

Wednesday + Homework

Students took home a paper tonight to check with family members of different genetic characteristics. They are to write down how many family members participate in seeing how many can roll their tongue or have a short first toe. There are ten or eleven things to test.

We discussed genetics today. We filled out the punnett squares and learned about genes, alleles on chromosomes.

The test on cells and biomes will be on Tuesday Nov. 23rd.

Tuesday - test in one week

Today we learned about mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis is when the nucleus of the body cells divide creating two daughter cells exactly like their parent cell. The daughter cells, in humans, have 46 chromosomes. Meiosis is when the nucleus of sex cells divide. But, since they can only have 23 chromosomes, they must divide twice leaving each with 23 chromosomes. To read about this go to pages B58-64.

We also broke open one of the eggs in each class. We could see the membrane and the nucleus.

Please work on knowing the parts of your biomes and cell organelles. These will be on the test.

Monday

The upcoming test will be on Tuesday, November 23rd. It will cover B1-B66.

Today we checked out our eggs. On Thursday we exchanged the corn syrup egg with the salt egg to see what would happen. The salt egg was down to 44 grams from 100 and the corn syrup egg was up to 99 from 38. Tomorrow we will break open one egg in each class just to see what the inside is like.

When we returned to class students began making charts to graph the progress of each egg in color.

Wednesday

We reviewed population, community, ecosystem, living and nonliving things today. Then we check our eggs to see if equilibrium had been attained or if diffusion was still occurring. Last the students took a quiz on the organelles they studied last night.

Tomorrow at 2:30 we will be having a Veteran's day assembly. Please remember this assembly is to honor those that fought to protect our beliefs and our country. We need to behave in the way we have learned to show support and honor to our veterans.

Tuesday

We checked on our eggs today. We have been studying diffusion and we are weighing the shell-less eggs to see if they are losing or gaining liquid. The egg in corn syrup lost almost 40 grams of liquid. The salt water egg gained 6 grams and the green water egg turned green and gained 4 grams. The shelled egg that we put in vinegar has lost its shell and is at 67 grams. We will weigh all the eggs daily and see what happens to them.

Today we discussed that living and dead things have cells, but non-living are things that never lived and so they do not have cells. However, living, dead and non-living things all have elements. We discussed the elements in the human body and the contents of the human cell. (B42-45)

We watched a Youtube on photosynthesis "Photosynthesis" by mediasemantics. Many students understand this concept so it was a review, but for some it was their first time through.

Monday

We went into the lab and started an experiment to learn about osmosis and diffusion. We take shell-less eggs and put them in water, corn syrup and a salt water concentrate. We will record the eggs weights starting and then every day. The students will also put a shelled egg in vinegar water to observe that.

Diffusion is when molecules move from an area of high concentration to lower concentration. Osmosis is the diffusion of water molecules.

We also reviewed the jobs of cell organelles. Students then were asked to write the cells jobs without looking. This will help prepare them for their test.

Thursday

There is no homework tonight. We corrected our homework, nearly every student got it done. That is good news. Then I handed out cards to each team. The cards had a cell's organelle listed on it. Each team had to figure out how to act out the function of the organelle and then we played charades. Some of the students were very good at this. Last we reviewed the parts of the organelles on Plato activities.

The student fixed tests and animal papers are corrected and the students should get those back on Monday. Two animal papers were not corrected as I am still waiting for the rubrics and first paper. The students have been reminded again to get those to me.

Wednesday + Homework

Today we looked at anatomy tissues and saw the differences. Then we went to Plato and learned about the organelles in the cell. If you want to go to your Plato account and review it, I will set it up.

Remember, your Plato name is your first and last name as one word with capitals on the first letter of your first and last name. Your group name is 2017 and your password is your student number. If it asks for the site ID it is 1002 Hope that helps.

There is homework tonight, read B1-B15 and answer the questions on B15 1-5 in complete sentences.

A reminder Plato only works on Internet Explorer.

Tuesday - computer mix-up

I apologize for missing the blog the last few days, apparently I signed in on my personal blog and that is where the updates went. For this I am sorry. I am sure that puzzled those who follow my blog.

Thursday I was gone to meetings in Boise, students watched a movie about reptiles and amphibians. We corrected that on Monday.

On Monday we reviewed the metric system, finished the Biome notes and finished watching the movie on amphibians and reptiles.

Today we are learning about cells. We reviewed the cell system, from cells > tissues > organs > organ systems > organisms. We watched a power point presentation on cells and started to look at tissue slices of hair, blood, and other slides that show the different make-up of our tissues.