Friday September 9th - Daily Question Quiz and Bacterial plate Observations!!

Friday we took our Prokaryotic Vs Eukaryotic Daily question Quiz and then had time to take a look at your bacterial plates.  While some of the plates were BEAUTIFUL and had a variety of different kinds of bacteria, others were a little disappointing! :(   I hypothesize a few different reasons for that.
#1.  The conditions were not right for the bacteria that was collected.  The agar we placed it on had very specific nutrients which may have simply not been what the bacteria needed to grow.
#2.  The colonies were still too small to see because of a slow rate of reproduction.
#3.  Improper swabbing technique.

NOT a big deal though - because we then let them sit over the weekend AAAAAAAND.......  Had some pretty awesome plates at that point!!!

Thursday September 8th - Cell structure / Function as well as making our own live and active cultures!!!

Today was an interesting one for sure!!!  We started off with the following daily questions:

The first questions was about the relative size of prokaryotic cells vs the other three organisms which would consist of eukaryotic cells.

I also mentioned that this specific bacteria is found in most yogurt and is proven to be GOOD for us!!   There is so much misconception about bacteria being "bad" or "Gross" when in fact we DEPEND on certain bacteria for a healthy digestive tract!!!

 The second question was all about that key concept about how the surface area to volume ratio is so important for biological process.

FINALLY......  the third question was pretty straight forward in terms of the fact that it is focusing on the Structure function relationship.  To properly show this....  I used animal organs as a demonstration.  Each of these different organs have VERY different functions.  What ALLOWS for that?!?!?!  Well..... the fact that the cells that make up the tissue that make up the organs have VERY different structures...........  Each cell / organ is going to have very different functions!!

THEN we got into some even more fun stuff.  Since it is nearly impossible to see a single bacterial cell without a very high powered microscope, I wanted to somehow make this all "real" to you.  Today you had the opportunity to swab different places around the room / school and see what kind of bacteria we can grow!You won't be able to see any of the bacteria you collected today since prokarytotic cells are so small.  We placed them in an incubator that is set to body temperature to allow the bacteria to grow and reproduce.  When we come back tomorrow, any colonies we see are the result of MILLIONS of bacteria that have populated out of a SINGLE  bacteria captured.  You guys came up with some pretty cool places to swab and I'm looking forward to seeing what we come up with tomorrow!!!

Wednesday September 7th - Prokaryotic vs Eukaryotic cells intro

Wednesday was another notes day to prepare us for the activity that will happen over the next couple days.  We started with the following daily questions:

We then moved into some notes:

Tuesday September 6th - Cell Structure and Function Intro

Today we started into our next section.  We are currently addressing the following Keystone Exam Content:

Since we had a variety of Daily Questions today, I printed out them out for you.  Here they are!

Next up......  A couple slides of intro notes!!

Thursday September 1st - Characteristics of Life Daily Question Quiz

Here we go with our first real content Daily Question Quiz!!

Click on the link or the picture to get started!!

Characteristics of Life Daily Question Quiz

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Wednesday August 31st - Characteristics of Life Wrap Up

Wednesday August 31st

Today we finished up our notes and discussion on the Characteristics of life.  Here were our Daily Questions for today:

Then Continued through the characteristics of life:

I mentioned earlier this week about the need for ALL these characteristics in order to be considered a living organism.  With that said, there is a lot of debate over viruses - here is a clip that discusses it!

Tuesday August 30th - Characteristics of Life Continued!

You guys did a pretty good job at getting into class and starting your daily questions.  Hopefully by the end of next week this becomes pretty routine to you!!   Here were today's daily questions.

Then we continued through the notes about the different characteristics of life:

 

And then there was the bad breath example:

Stay tuned for more characteristics of life!!!

Monday August 29th - Characteristics of Life Day 1

We are getting right into the swing of things this week!   Today you had your first set of daily questions.  Here they were:

I then had you brain storm ideas of what you think ALL living organisms have in common.   Many of you were SPOT ON with some of these.  Specifically, I was excited to see how many put down DNA, Cells and Energy!!  We will be going through these over the next couple days!!  

Here were some of the notes that we got through:

FIRST DQQ and a Getting to know you form!!

WELCOME to our class blog.  This place will be your GO TO when you are absent, or even when you just want to review things we have done during the week!

Today I have TWO assignments for you. FIRST - You will take your Daily Question Quiz.  This is just to familiarize yourself with how these quizzes work! 

Click on the link or the picture to begin.

First Daily Question Quiz

NEXT - Go to your EMAIL and you will see your score for the quiz!!


SECOND - Fill out the "Getting to know you form"
Again - You can click on the link or the picture below!!

Getting to know you

Tuesday May 3rd - More Final Exam Review!!!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo.......

We have been going through sample final exam questions.  Today we went through the genetics part of things.

Here are the screen shots!

Tomorrow I will not be in school......



No seriously - NOT party time for you guys!!!

There are two practice final exams on Study Island - DO THEM!!!

Have a great day tomorrow :)