January 23, 2011

January 23, 2011

Happy Bears-Packers Day!  What's something you'll never hear a Packers' fan say?  "I'll take Shakespeare for 1,000, Alex."  Anyway, on to the education part of this blog!

Events of the Past Week

This last week was all about final exams.  On Wednesday, students in the 2nd and 3rd hour accelerated biology classes took their finals, on Thursday, the 4th hour students took their finals, and on Friday, the 8th hour students took their finals.  Overall your children did very well on their final exams - they must have studied very hard! 

Speaking of studying - here is a link to an article from the New York Times on a study that investigated the best way for students to recall information.  The study was published in the journal Science.  It looks like I may have to start giving a few more quizzes!  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

Upcoming Events

Tuesday:  We will be analyzing the data the students recorded from their gel electrophoresis lab, and using it to determine the length of the DNA fragments in the gels that they ran.  While the students are analyzing their data, I will be showing them the grades they earned for their final exam and the first semester.

Wednesday:  We will do a paper DNA Fingerprinting simulation.  Your children will be analyzing evidence from a crime scene to determine who is the guilty party in a murder investigation.

Thursday:  We will be watching our first movie of the year!  The movie comes from an excellent series on DNA.  This one focuses on the Human Genome Project, which determined the DNA sequence of each gene in a human being.  This movie does an excellent job of making the project a little more personal for the students by introducing the people who were responsible for this amazing feat.  It also presents the intense competition that took place between two groups competing to be the first to determine the sequence of the entire human genome.

Friday:  We will watch our second movie of the year!  This one is called "Harvest of Fear", and will introduce students to genetically modified organisms.  Most of the organisms in the movie are plants that have been modified to have a new, beneficial trait, such as resistance to disease.  The movie does a nice job of presenting both the potentially positive and negative effects of inserting new genes into living things.

Have a good week, and GO BEARS!