October 28, 2012

October 28, 2012

October 28, 2012

Hello everyone!  There was no newsletter last week because I was too busy with our class project!  Two weeks ago we reviewed for our test on microscopes and Measurement, and then took the test over a two day period on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday I assigned our cell campaign project which I am confident you have seen your children working on these past two weeks!  As part of the campaign, I suggested that they create a Twitter account for their organelle, if they wanted to, and begin tweeting about their organelle and smearing the other organelles.  We continued to work on the project on Friday.  What followed was nothing short of amazing.  Within about 12 hours of the start of the project, I noticed that there were people I did not recognize getting involved in the campaign online.  This, of course, concerned me quite a bit, so I investigated to make sure that the kids were not being put in danger.  It turns out that the people who were tweeting with my kids were cell biologists from around the globe!  Each of them has a different cell organelle that is their area of interest, and they began helping the groups with their favorites, and helping smear some of the others.  One of the scientists, Dr. Anne Osterrieder, is a professor at Oxford-Brookes University in England.  She, Dr. David Logan from the Universite d'Angers in France, and Dr. John Runions at the University of Oxford-Brookes (who is also Dr. Molecule on BBC Radio) have been among the scientists tweeting with the kids.  If your son or daughter created a Twitter account for their organelle, you should ask them to see what they've been doing and look at the interactions they have had!  The cell biologists have been directing them to great research articles, asking them great questions, and sharing great information with them.  These experts know so much more about this topic than I do that your children's education on cells has been improved immeasurably by these interactions!  We were blogged about at the website www.plantcellbiology.org.  The project has gained its own hashtag on Twitter: #organellewars.  One biologist even tweeted "Best #war hashtag that doesn't depress me to follow, but gives me hope for humanity: #organellewars.  The link to this blog and our hashtag has been retweeted by all kinds of scientists and educators around the globe.  One of the retweets came from Ed Yong, who writes a blog for discover magazine.  He is a pretty big deal in the online science community, writing a blog called "It's Not Rocket Science" with over 10 million hits since he began writing it.  We were also talked about on BBC Radio!  Here is a link to the podcast, in which they begin discussing our project around the 6 minute and 10 second mark:  http://drmolecule.org/2012/10/23/organellewars-a-fun-school-project-in-cell-biology/.

This experience has by far been the most incredible experience of my fifteen year teaching career.  To have your children (my students) interacting with experts from around the world and to be excited about learning about the Golgi Apparatus is unbelievable.

Needless to say, last week was dedicated almost entirely to working on our project.  I extended the deadline for the project until Monday, so Monday will be spent with the students giving presentations to persuade people to vote for their cell organelle.  Tuesday we will be finishing watching a BBC special on the cell that premiered in Europe last Sunday, and then was sent to me by one of the biologists after he was able to obtain a copy of it from a contact of his at the BBC.  Wednesday, Halloween, or, should I say, Cell-o-ween, will be voting day for the organelles.  The voting will be online by class period.  Following voting, we will begin a lab project investigating how materials move into and out of cells.  We will be placing an egg in 150 mL of vinegar.  We will be measuring the mass of the egg before we begin, and measuring the mass of the egg each day thereafter throughout the course of this several day project.  After the lab is set up, I will be lecturing about the structure of the plasma membrane.  There will be no homework on Wednesday.  Thursday we will take a look at our eggs to see if there has been a change after soaking in vinegar overnight.  Then we will run a second lab investigating osmosis and diffusion.  We will use a semipermeable bag that allows some materials to pass through it, but not others.  The bag will have starch, protein, and glucose inside of it, and we will use the chemical indicator tests we learned during our biochemistry unit to determine which molecules can and cannot pass through the bag.  While the bags are sitting, the students will be looking at red onion under the microscope, first in distilled water, and then in salt water.  For homework, the students will be watching a video lecture I will be putting together explaining the processes of passive and active transport.  On Friday, we will be placing our eggs in Karo corn syrup to sit over the weekend.  Following this activity, we will be completing the questions in the semipermeable bag and red onion lab, and then observing two groups of celery and carrots.  One of them will have been sitting in distilled water overnight, and one in salt water.  We will then discuss the results of those experiments.  Homework over the weekend will be to begin studying for our test on cells, which will probably be the following Tuesday.

Have a great week everybody!  I cannot pick a geek of the week this week because all of the students have been doing a tremendous job on their projects, and I just don't want anyone to be upset that they did not get chosen.  I have been truly impressed by the effort from almost every student in class on this project!

October 14, 2012

October 14, 2012

October 14, 2012

What a dreary fall weekend this was.  Hopefully the sun comes out before it's over!

Events of the Past Week

Tuesday - We spent class working on a lab working with the metric system on Tuesday. The students practiced measuring length, volume, and mass, and then converting their measurements into different metric units.  This took most of the class period to complete.  For homework, the students were to complete the prelab portion of the metric system lab, which had them converting more units in the metric system.

Wednesday - I collected the metric system lab from the students, and then introduced them to how to write numbers in scientific notation.  They were then given one last metric system practice worksheet.  When they finished that worksheet, they were given some practice scientific notation problems.  For homework, they completed problems 1 through 4 on that sheet.

Thursday - We began class by checking the metric system worksheet and problems 1 through 4 on the scientific notation worksheet for accuracy.  After taking a little bit of time for questions on those two assignments, we began a lab called "Measuring With the Microscope."  The students first determined the diameter of their field of view in millimeters under the microscope by looking at a ruler.  They then calculated the diameter of their high power field of view.  Once the diameters of their field of view were determined, the  students had to convert the diameters they determined into micrometers.  Following this, the size of five different objects were determined by looking at them under the microscope.  For homework, the students completed questions 5 and 6 in their scientific notation packet.

Friday - The students were introduced to graphing using Microsoft Excel at the beginning of class.  Then, they were allowed time to finish measuring objects under the microscope. Most groups had about 1 or 2 objects to finish looking at, and a few analysis questions to finish answering.  Then, they were given time to begin graphing four different data sets on Excel, and answering questions about those data sets.  For homework over the weekend, they were to complete any graphs that had not been completed.

Upcoming Events

Monday - We will review for our test on the metric system, microscope, scientific notation, and graphing.  The students will look at crossed threads under the microscope and also complete a review packet for the test.  Homework will be to study for the test.  The answer key to the review sheet is available at www.mrgraba.net on the accelerated biology 1st semester worksheets page.

Tuesday - The class periods are shortened on Tuesday due to the late start, so the students will only be given the multiple choice portion of the test on the metric system, the microscope, scientific notation, and graphing.  They will probably want to spend a little time studying for the short answer portion of the test on Wednesday.

Wednesday - The students will take the short answer portion of the test on Wednesday.  The students will be given 35-40 minutes to complete this portion of the test.  When everyone is done, the students will be introduced to their organelle campaign projects that I described on open house night.  The students will be shown some examples of some of the projects from last year, and be given the expectations for the project.  They will also pick their organelles out of a hat.  There will be no homework for Wednesday night.

Thursday - The students will be given the day to plan and work on their projects.  The project is done in pairs, so the students will need to start assigning parts of the project to each other to complete each night.

Friday - We will spend the day looking at plant and animal cells under the microscope.  The students will look at their own cheek cells as an animal cell example, then onion cells, and then cells from an aquatic plant called Elodea.  Homework will be to work on their organelle projects over the weekend.

Graba Geek of the Week

This week's Geek of the Week goes to Sarah Brand, who has become so good at finding objects under the microscope that she was helping groups around the class find their objects when they were struggling.  Thank you, Sarah, and good work!

October 8, 2012

October 8, 2012

October 8, 2012

Happy Columbus Day!  After a long, cold weekend of camping with the Webelos, I'm ready to get back to work with the kids in class.  I hope they are ready to be put to work!

Events of the Past Week

Monday - On Monday we spent much of the class period reviewing our results from the Biochemistry Test from the previous Friday.  The average for my classes was an 81%, which is a solid B.  After reviewing the results from the test, I introduced the students to the parts of the microscope.  There was no homework on Monday night.

Tuesday - I was gone on Tuesday, so the students worked on a history of the microscope webquest.  Unfortunately, the school's Internet was really slow, and the periods were shortened.  As a result, most students did not finish their webquests.  Homework was supposed to be to finish the webquest.  At home, however, some students had trouble with a Java plug-in, so the students were also given Wednesday night to finish the assignment.

Wednesday - We did a peer teaching lab in class.  The students each had an aspect of the microscope they were to teach the rest of their lab table about.  One person was responsible for teaching the parts of the microscope and calculating total magnification.  One person was responsible for teaching how to find objects under the microscope.  One person taught the students how to make a wet mount, and one person showed the students how to properly clean the microscope and put the microscope away when you are done with it.  Homework was to finish the webquest.

Thursday - We began a lab looking at different objects under the microscope.  There were five prepared slides (a fruit fly, a Paramecium, human blood, human blood with sickle-cell anemia, and frog blood) for the students to look at on Thursday.  Some students also brought in pond water to look at on Thursday.  One sample had many microscopic organisms called Daphnia which were very interesting for the students to look at under the microscope.  

Friday - We finished the microscope lab by looking at potato slices first without any stain, and then with Iodine as a stain.  We tied this staining back to our biochemistry unit by reminding the students what it is that Iodine indicates when it changes color from yellow to purple.  Any prepared slides that the students did not get to look at on Thursday were also viewed on Friday.  When a lab team finished, they were given a worksheet that had them practicing metric conversions, as our next lab will be having the students working with the metric system.  Homework was to finish any lab questions and to finish any metric conversions that were not completed in class.

Upcoming Events

Monday - NO SCHOOL!  COLUMBUS DAY!

Tuesday - We will be running a metric system lab to help the students review the metric system, which I'm sure they have learned many times before!  The students will be measuring length, volume, and mass, and then converting their measurements from the metric unit the measure in to other metric units.  Since it only involves moving decimals, converting in the metric system should not be too difficult for the students!  They will be asked to know the following prefixes:  tera, giga, mega, kilo, hecto, deka, deci, centi, milli, micro, nano.  There are computers being developed with terabytes worth of memory now, and technology being developed using nanotechnology, so I believe that these are useful prefixes for the students to know.  Homework will be to complete the questions in the metric system lab.

Wednesday - The metric system lab will be collected, and I will see if the students have any questions about the metric system as we process what they learned from the experiment.  The students will then be reintroduced to using scientific notation.  They will also be taught how to multiply, divide, add, and subtract while using scientific notation.  There will be time given for the students to begin some practice scientific notation problems.  Any problems that are not finished in class will be finished for homework.

Thursday - We will spend time reviewing the scientific notation homework.  The students will be grading their own work, and then will be given the opportunity to ask for help on any questions that the got wrong.  After this, we will conduct a lab experiment called "Measuring with the Microscope."  The students will measure the length of the diameter of their field of view under low power on the microscope, and then calculate the diameter of their field of view under high power.  Once they have completed that task, they will then estimate the size of various microorganisms as they view them under the microscope.  This can be challenging for the students, but we will work to get everyone understanding how to estimate sizes by the end of the lab.  This lab ties together everything we will have learned about the microscope, the metric system, and scientific notation.  There will be no homework on Thursday.

Friday - At the beginning of class, the students will be shown how to graph a data set by using Microsoft Excel.  Then, the students will be given time to finish their "Measuring with the Microscope" lab activity.  This should take about 15-20 minutes.  After completing the lab activity, the students will hand it in and begin working on a graphing activity using data sets that I will give them.  There are a series of questions to answer about the graphs the students create as they work through the graphing activity.  I will not be requiring the graphs to be completed for homework, as not all students may have Microsoft Excel at home.  The graphs will be completed in class on Monday.  Plan on there being a test on the microscope, metric system, scientific notation, and graphing on Tuesday the 16th of October.

Graba Geek of the Week

This week's Geek of the Week is Mark Guo, who brought in our Daphnia filled water sample.  Without him, the pond water observation portion of our lab would not have been nearly as successful or interesting.  Thank you, Mark! 

Have a great week everyone!