Monday, February 21, 2011

Notebook Test & Tour of the Cell

Today students had a notebook test for which anything we have done since the beginning of the semester was fair game.

Students also received a letter that described their next assignment (click the picture below to view a larger copy of the letter).

You should start working on this assignment tonight for homework and you will have all of class tomorrow to work on the assignment as well. You may do this by hand or on a computer.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Parts of the cell

On Friday, students presented their want ads for the parts of the cell.

Reminder: Tomorrow you will have a notebook test for the Human Body unit. Make sure to bring your notebook and that your table of contents is up to date.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Last day of Microscopes

Today we had our last day working with the microscopes. We looked at complete organisms, including ticks, daphnia and fruit flies. In the second half of the class, we compared plant and animal cells.

Tonight for homework, you need to click on your name below. That will take you to a specific part of the cell. You should make a want ad for that cell part. Your want ad should include a description of the function of that cell part and a picture.

Do NOT include the name of the cell part, you will present your ad to the class on Friday and we will guess to what cell part it is.


Below is an example,
you can make your want ad on the computer or by hand, it doesn't matter :)
Click on your name to find out your cell part.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

More Microscopes!


Today we looked at more things under the microscopes, some of favorites were Spirogyra (see above) Dogfish skin and the xylem of plants.

Homework: Use the information below to answer the questions about cells on the second page from class today. Click on the pictures to make them larger so you can read them more easily.


For the box at the bottom of the worksheet you will need to draw a cell.

If your name is:
Carlo
Malcolm
Francesca
Paul
Adam
Jose
Antonella

Click here and draw this type of cell

If your name is
Gabriella
Gianromano
Isabella
Ivan
Mathide
Jonatan
Tomi
Edo

Click here and draw this type of cell.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today we continued to look at slides using light microscopes. Below is a cross section of the gallbladder. In addition to slides of the digestive system, we looked at slides of the circulatory system.


Homework: Read and take notes on the information on this webpage. You will have a reading quiz. A good ol' fashioned paper quiz.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sorry for the delay!

I'm still working on getting the pictures up, I've been having a problem with my uploader :(

On Friday we used microscopes to look at tissue samples, we'll continue this on Monday.

There is no homework due on Monday.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Stomach Dissection

Today we dissected pig's stomachs outside on the DeNobili terrace....during lunch! Pictures will be posted later tonight.

On Friday you will be looking at some of the tissues samples you selected under dissecting microscopes. You will also be using a new type of microscope, called a compound light microscope.

Watch the video below on how to use a compound light microscope. You will have a short prelab quiz on how to use a microscope.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Digestive System Day 1

Today students took a quiz to recap the circulatory and respiratory systems. Then we started to learn about the digestive system.

For homework, watch the video clip below. You will need to take notes. Pause the video to write down key points about how food is digested.



You will have a quiz on this video tomorrow, so any notes you take you can use.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Wrapping up the Respiratory System

Today we wrapped up our investigation with the dialysis tubing. We used this as a model of capillaries to learn about osmosis and diffusion.

To survive we rely on the the diffusion of oxygen into our blood from our lungs and the diffusion of carbon dioxide from our blood into our lungs.

We also saw that only the red food coloring and the water were able to move through the membrane, but oil and the black food coloring didn't move through membrane. From this we learned that membranes are selectively permeable.

Homework: you have a quiz on the circulatory and respiratory system.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Builing a Model Lung

Today students worked in groups to build a model of a lung. Below are some of the key points we learned during this activity:

When the diaphragm contracts (flattens/pulls down), air is pulled into the lungs. When it relaxes, air is expelled from the lungs.

There are thousands of bronchioles in the lungs, at the end of these are small air sacks called aveoli. Gas exchange happens at these aveoli.

Homework: Make an observations/patterns/explanations table for the respiratory system. This should be a new page in your notebook and go directly behind the orange 'o/p/e' table in your notebook.

We will be using this table for an experiment tomorrow.