Monday and Tuesday January 30th and 31st - Open notes quiz and DNA Replication Intro

Monday you guys took an open notes quiz over the Cell cycle and into DNA Structure.  Today we got down a little bit of notes to prep us for another K'nex activity tomorrow!!

Cell Cycle Continued - Monday January 23rd - Friday January 27th

Well...... You guys had the WONDERFUL Mr. Wieland Monday - Wednesday while I was at a training.  During that time you finished up the Cell Cycle and Reproduction intro packet and then read through two readings about the cell cycle and cancer.

We were back in action on Thursday so here is the rundown of things from Thursday and Today!!

Cell Cycle and Reproduction Catch up - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday January 18th, 19th and 20th

Well..... It's been a while since I have posted!!  We finished up with midterms and such and moved right into Cell Cycle and Reproduction.  The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur with me being out THREE days this week for a training and just the end of the 2nd nine weeks and such!!!

So here we are - entering the world of Cell cycle and reproduction.   As an intro, we watched the following Crash Course last week:

And had a couple sets of Daily Questions

Aaaand - the notes:

Here was the video we watched about how chromosomes are packaged in the nucleus:

Midterms, End of the Nine Weeks catch up, etc

This week has been full of getting things wrapped up for the end of the nine weeks.  Tuesday and Wednesday we took our second round of CDTs.

Each of you received a printout of your results.  It included your September score, the January Score and the equivalent Midterm score (if you were eligible.)  I was pretty impressed with how you guys have progressed since September!  We are on the right track that's for sure :) 

Today you had the day to either complete the bonus assignment or to study for the Midterm.  You have Tomorrow and Tuesday to take / retake the midterm.   There are practice tests on Study Island - DO THEM!!!!

Also.....  the end of the nine weeks exemption form is here!!!  Click below to enter which daily question quiz you would like to have removed from your 2nd term grade.

Friday January 6th - Bioenergetics Exam and Module A Practice Test

If you did the practice tests you are going to be in for a BEAUTIFUL surprise for this test!!

Go ahead and Login to Study Island.  Take the Bioenergetics exam and when you are completed with that, go ahead and take the Module A Practice test.

Thursday January 5th - bioenergetics Wrap Up

We finished up with photosynthesis and cellular respiration today using the pop it bead models.  We started with only one daily question:

Next up - You went through the light dependent reaction of photosynthesis as a review of what we did yesterday.

We then continued through Photosynthesis.

There are two main products of photosynthesis:  Oxygen and Glucose.  Yesterday we saw where the Oxygen came from (From the splitting of water).  Today we looked at where the Glucose came from.  (In a SUPER simplified form.......)

Here is the actual reaction:

Here is a BIT of a simplified version:

And we did a MUCH more simplified version and simply split apart our 6 carbon dioxide molecules and bound each of the carbons together to represent a glucose molecule.

Now......  We have finished up with Photosynthesis.  As the daily question mentioned, Plants go through both photosynthesis AND cellular respiration.   So lets say the plant now needs to obtain energy from the glucose it made during photosynthesis.  That is done through cellular respiration.  The first step was Glycolysis (Literally the "Splitting of Glucose")

AGAIN..... Here is the actual process:

aaand - here is a simplified version:

And this is how easy it was for US:

Next up would be aerobic respiration which I didn't even ATTEMPT to have you figure out - We just went right to the simplified version in which you split apart the two pyruvate molecules and created Carbon Dioxide in the mean time.

Many of you then were like "Didn't we just do this?!?!"  Well..... SORT of..... instead of MAKING CO2 - You were BREAKING CO2 in order to make glucose.  Now we have come full circle!!!

I believe that I royally confused you, which is sad, but be encouraged - You do NOT need to know this IN DEPTH at all!!!

Test Tomorrow - PLEASE look over daily questions and DO THE PRACTICE EXAM ON STUDY ISLAND!!!!!

Wednesday January 4th - Photosynthesis / Cellular Respiration Models Day 1

So you FINALLY had the chance to start looking at these pop-it bead models that represent both Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration.  Today we started with the following Daily Questions before moving into those models.

 Then on to the models.  For today, we simply went through the FIRST part of Photosynthesis where Water Molecules are split to create Oxygen Gas and ATP and NADPH are created.

FIRST - We figured out what everything represented

Next Up was Bringing water molecules into our chloroplast

Those Water Molecules Split apart

The Oxygen atoms bonded with each other to form O2 (The oxygen we breathe)

In the meantime, two energy molecules are created, ATP and NADPH.  I care more that you know about ATP so I had you create that by letting you know that Adenosine was a yellow bead and that phosphate groups were red or Orange.

After a bit of time, most of you figured out that ATP (Adenosine TRIphospate) would be an adenosine bound to 3 phosphates.

Tomorrow we will work through the second part of photosynthesis (Creating Glucose) and will see that as we take the photosynthesis models apart - We are actually going through the process of Glycolysis!!!

SOOOOOO......  There ya go!!