Last Class Period

Today, as promised to Ivan, we watched an episode of Human Planet: Oceans. As sea level rises, how will our behaviors change? How have the oceans shaped our lives? Check out the clip below to see how long one man can hold his breath.



Congratulations to Mathilde for winning the "Best Lab Report Award" and to Jose for winning "Most Improved in Science."

Have a great and safe summer!

Geology Jigsaw - Presentations

Today students presented their sections from the geology jigsaw. We learned about how fossils are made, how scientists use radioactive dating and the relative age of rocks. There was some confusion on how radioactive dating works, so if you're interested, you can check out this article, or watch this basic video on Carbon-14, or this more advanced video.

On Monday we don't meet because you get to go to Gardaland! Tuesday will be our last class, as promised, we'll watch an episode of Human Planet and have a few treats. If you would like to bring in something for the class, feel free, but no nuts :)

Geology Jigsaw

Now it's your turn to be the expert! Today students worked on a jig saw activity using Chapter 4 from Science Explorer. Below are the groups.

Fossils: Jon, Isabella, Antonella, Adam

The Relative Age of Rocks: Jose, Mathilde, Paul, Carlo

Radioactive Dating & Geologic Time Scale: Ivan, Gabriella, Francesca, (Malcolm)

Working with your group, you will create a 5-7 minute presentation on your topic to share with the class on Friday. You will have the first half of class on Friday to do any final organizing/editing.

Be a Paleontologist!

Today students had a chance to be a paleontologist and discover how tricky it can be to interpret fossil evidence when you don't have a complete picture. After a great display of teamwork, students discovered that they were looking at the bones of a Xenosmilus.

"From the partial skeletons found in Florida, Xenosmilus has been found to have the short, broad upper canines of the Scimitar tooth cats and the robust short legged build of the Dirk tooth cats. Xenosmilus was about the size of a modern lion, and more muscular than the Smilodon species. It is assumed that Xenosmilus preyed upon wild pigs, for several skeletons of this type were found in the cave deposits along with the cats." Read more here. This lesson came from UCMP Berkeley.

Homework: none :)

Finshing Great Transformations

Today we finished Great Transformations from the PBS evolution series. We learned about the importance of homologies and comparative embryology in understanding evolution. As you may recall, at the beginning of the film, we learned about paleontologists and how the discovery of fossils contributes greatly to our understanding of the fossil record. Tomorrow, you will have the chance to be a paleontologist.

Hooray Blogger is back up and running!

Since blogger was down for almost two days (which felt like an eternity), we are missing the post from Wednesday.

On Wednesday students made a 46 meter timeline that stretched from the gazebo almost all the way to the theater. Each meter represented 100 million years. We were able to take a walk through time and see just how recently the world came to be how we see it today.

Today we watched the first two segments of PBS's Great Transformations video. For Monday you have two assignments. First watch the third segment and answer the following questions:

A. What are three things you learned?
B. What are two things you have questions about?
C. What is one thing you'd like to learn more about?




Part 2:By Monday at 3:35 PM, email me the answers to the following questions:

1. What assignment are you most proud of from this class and why?

2. How does this work demonstrate your skills and abilities in science?

3. What was challenging or interesting about this project?

4. If you had to do this again, what would you do differently?

5. What did you work the hardest on? Was it a specific project, studying for a test, learning to be organized etc?

6. What was the most interesting thing to learn about this spring term? In case you’ve forgotten all that we have done, look back through the blog archive.

7. What were the biggest challenges to your success in this class?

8. How did you work to overcome these challenges?

9. How have you changed as a student from the start of the year to now?

10. What can you teach others about Biology that you couldn't before?

11. Is there a skill that you learned in this class that can help you in other classes, if so what it it? (don't you dare write "nothing" because you are tired of writing.

Part 2:

What are three things you think I do well as a teacher?


What are three things (or areas) where you think I could improve as a teacher?


What is one piece of advice you would give to students who are taking this class next year?


Anything else I should know?

A quiz & an evolution timeline

For the first half of the period, students completed the evolution case study quiz. After completing the quiz, we transitioned from learning about microevolution to macroevolution.

Natural selection is only one part of microevolution. There are three other components, that because of time, we were not able to study in depth. These are: mutation, migration and genetic drift (random loss of genetic variation). When these four parts components are combined with a substantial amount of time, macroevolution can occur.

The first hurdle in learning about macroevolution is understanding the immense amount of time involved. To help us, students hypothesized about the appearance of life on Earth by making a model timeline.

Our timeline was only 4.6 meters long. Tomorrow we will be creating a larger timeline on campus. Your homework is to research your two assigned events. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Ivan your assigned events are: Neanderthals and Mississippi River Formation
Carlo your assigned events are: Formation of the Himalayas and Pictograms (written communication)

Below are the events which will be placed on the timeline:

Geological Events: When (in millions of years)

Pleistocene Ice Age 1.6
Land bridge between North and South America 5.7
Antarctic Ice cap 24
Mississippi River 35
Separation of Antarctica and Australia 50
Formation of the Himalayas 55
Formation of the Rocky Mountains 70
Breakup of Pangea 165
Oxygen building up in atmosphere 600-2500
Formation of the earth 4600

Biological Events

Pictograms (written communication) .005
Modern humans .04
Neanderthals .10

Manufactures stone tools 2.5
Lucy 3.2
Hominids 4.0
Monkeys 35
Primates 65
Flowering plants 140
Birds 150
Mammals 225
Dinosaurs 235
Reptiles 300
Seed producing plants 350
Amphibians 360
Land animals 400
Land plants 430
Vertebrates 520
Animals with hard shells 590
Soft bodied animals 680
Multicellular organisms 1000
Eukaryotes 1400
Bacteria 3500

Note: 1 billion equals 1000 million

Why Evolution Matters Now

Today watched a segment from the PBS Evolution series, titled "Why Evolution Matters Now."


Homework: Tomorrow you will have a short in class writing assignment, that will count for a quiz grade where you will need to answer the question:

Give two examples of ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors are causes of evolution and the diversity of organisms. You will need to define evolution and state the four essential components of natural selection. You will be given these questions on paper to guide your answers. You will NOT be able to use your notes.

Quick Evolution Leads to Quiet Crickets

Over the past week, we have been addressing the learning standard that students should be able to:

Give examples of ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors are causes of evolution and the diversity of organisms

We learned about the fictional clipbirds which serve as a model for Darwin's finches. Charles Darwin was under the impression that evolution happens so slowly, we can't actually see it happen in a lifetime. While this idea is correct in many instances, there are some cases where organisms reproduce in a short time period, for example bacteria and crickets.

Today we read the article "Quick Evolution Leads to Quiet Crickets."

Attack of the flesh-eating parasitoid maggots!! Mutant mute crickets run rampant in tropical paradise!! The headlines may sound like a trailer for a cheap horror flick — but in fact, these sensationalist sound bites accurately describe the situation on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The "flesh-eating parasitoid maggots" are the offspring of the fly, Ormia ochracea, which invaded Hawaii from North America, and the mutant crickets are the flies' would-be victims. The flies follow the chirps of a calling cricket and then deposit a smattering of wriggling maggots onto the cricket's back. The maggots burrow into the cricket, and emerge, much fatter, a week later — killing the cricket in the process. But this fall, biologists Marlene Zuk, John Rotenberry, and Robin Tinghitella announced a breakdown in business-as-usual in this gruesome interaction: in just a few years, the crickets of Kauai have evolved a strategy to avoid becoming a maggot's lunch — but the strategy comes at a cost... To read more click here.

For homework answer the three questions at the bottom of the last page of the packet.

Clipbirds Lab

Today students did the Clipbirds Lab to see how evolution and availability of resources work together.

Homework: Due Friday

You are a news reporter and are writing a story on Charles Darwin and his theory.

You need to answer the questions of
Who was Charles Darwin?
What did he do and what were his discoveries?
When did do his research?
Where did his travels take him?
Why were his discoveries significant?
How has Darwin's discoveries shaped the current scientific view of evolution?

Important Notes:
You must cite at least three sources. No more than one of these can come from a wiki link. You must include the entire url. If you do not have proper citations, you will not receive credit for your work. You should use a combination of direct quotes and paraphrasing.

You can cite YouTube videos.

Not sure where to look? Below are some resources to get you started.
PBS's Evolution Series
Christ College's (Australian University) Darwin for Kids

Your article should use size 12, Times New Roman Font with 1.5 spacing.
You should write your article in a question & answer format.

Galapagos Exploration

Darwin was particularly inspired by what he saw, with regard to species, on the Galapagos islands. To help get us inspired, we watched segments of the IMAX film Galapagos Experience.

Tomorrow we will be doing a simulation that mimics what occurred in Darwin's finches (pictured below).

For Homework: Write a paragraph explaining why you think there is genetic variation in the bird beaks below. What advantages are there to such variation? Are there any disadvantages? Do you think one beak size (1,2,3 or 4) or is the best beak to have?

Welcome Back!

It's hard to believe, but as of today we only have three and a half weeks of school left! Our last unit of the year will be on evolution. What is evolution? In it's most basic form, evolution is change.

Today students completed a "what I know, think I know and want to know" brainstorm table as well as watched the video clips below.

It's important to know the difference between a hypothesis and a theory:



Who was Charles Darwin?



For homework, watch the video clip below and define the four components of natural selection.