Finishing up Properties of Water

Tuesday September 11^th

Water will form hydrogen bonds with other substances such as glass, soil and plant tissues. The term for this type of attraction is known as Adhesion

A combination of this and Cohesion can cause water to ‘defy gravity’ by moving UP narrow tubes (such as the roots of trees) in a process known as Capillary Action

**When we added soap to our pennies we were not able to get as much water on them – what do you think the soap did to the water? (Hint:  What causes cohesion)  The hydrogen bonds that hold water to each other are broke apart by the soap.  Because of this, the water is less "cohesive" and has a decreased surface tension.  This fact is why water alone is NOT a good cleaner since it really is just attracted to itself.  Once the hydrogen bonds are broken it is now able to be bond with other molecules to allow better "cleaning" (So wash your hands with water and SOAP otherwise you're not doing much cleaning!!!)

After this we continued through our notes on the properties of water.  You will continue through these tomorrow when I am out and then move into organic chemistry notes on Thursday.  Friday I will discuss all that you write down the two days I will be out.
Monday September 10^th

 *Water can and WANTS to form bonds with how many other water molecules?
4

*Waters attraction to other water molecules is known as Cohesion

*The term for how water “pulls in” at the surface to form a “film” is known asSurface Tension

Cohesion and Surface Tension Activity

 After learning what cohesion and surface tension was - we started to see it in action.  Here's some pics on how it went.

Remember Cohesion is waters attraction to other water molecules.  It wants to bind with FOUR other water molecules.  At the SURFACE of the water there is no other water molecules ABOVE, so it holds tight to the what it can below!

First I had you fill the jar up to the VERY top
with water.

So that it was actually slightly
OVER the top of the Jar

Then you slowly added pennies
into the already full jar

They you saw how many would fit
before it overflowed.

You were able to really "see" how attracted water is to itself as you were able to put a lot of pennies into the jar.  Again, the key thing to remember is that this property of water is all due to the HYDROGEN BONDS holding them together.  Until the pressure from the pennies below is greater than the attraction to each other, they will remain bonded to each other.

Until then - a "film" forms on the top of water that can hold a bit of weight.  I then had you guys try and float a pin on top of the water to show the strength of these hydrogen bonds.

Wonders of water Day 2

Friday September 7^th

Draw and label a water molecule 

What type of bond holds together this water molecule?

Because of this there are “partial” charges associated with it.  Which end acts +, which acts -? (Label those)

Using the models in your tubs – make 5 water molecules then place how you think 1 would bond with 4 others.

 What type of bond holds two water molecules together?

Your pop-it bead water molecules.  See how
the Hydrogens bond with oxygen and vice
versa - you will never see a Hydrogen bonded
with hydrogen of another water molecule.

Remember EACH of these would then be bonded to four Water
molecules which leads to a very complex crystal form

We then took one slide of notes on Cohesion and surface tension then got to see that in action!  Check the next blog post for pics on this activity.  (Remember - get notes off Edline if you are absent)

Wonders of Water Day 1!!

Thursday September 6^th

Based on this cartoon – What type of Bond is this “marriage” depicting?
An ionic bond since he is GIVING his electrons away.  Remember - I told you a way that I was taught to remember Ionic bonds is "I OWN it."  He GAVE her his electron so now she OWNS it!

What if instead the “boy” atom said “I do, Let’s share our valence electrons baby”  Which type of bond would it be referring to?
This would be a covalent bond.  Remember I told you that the prefix "co" means together, share or both.  In covalent bonds electrons are SHARED between two atoms.

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After that we started into our discussion on water and its INCREDIBLY unique properties.  First I had you watch the following clip from the Waterboy.... WHY?!??!!  Because we are going to see that water does NOT suck and Gatoraide wouldn't have the effect it did if water wasn't the amazing molecule it IS!

We are in for some hands on stuff over the next couple days!!!
It may be hot in here - but we'll make the best of it :)

Then we started into notes about water.  Most classes got to the point of drawing out water molecules, seeing what makes it "polar" and then made some water molecules with pop-it beads.

Making water molecules out of pop-it beads

Note the "mickey mouse" shape of the water molecule.
This is due to the fact that water is held together by
POLAR Covalent bonds - so the electrons are shared
unevenly!!

4 perfect little water molecules!
Tomorrow we will see how they interact with each other

Youtube really CAN have great stuff on it!!

OK folks - You saw a bit of ONE of his videos, I think this guy is going to be my new partner in crime in terms of teaching you guys.  We at least seem to be on the same energy level that is for sure!!!!

Seriously though......check out some of these "Crash Courses" as we go through the year.  This nice thing about him over me is you can pause, rewind and fast forward him!!

Each one is between 10 - 15 minutes long and so far what I have seen is good stuff!!!

http://www.youtube.com/course?list=EC3EED4C1D684D3ADF 

When did we sign up for chemistry?!?!?!

Our nucleus prop
Not MUCH hapening - just a bunch
of protons and neutrons hanging out!!

Daily Questions Wednesday September 5^th

The nucleus of an atom contains which subatomic particles? Protons and Neutrons

Of these two – which defines an element? Protons(remember - that is really the only real "EXCITING thing" about the proton is that it defines the element. Not much going on - I related it to the "couch potato" of the atom.

Watch out - you slack off in here and
an electron may come flying your way.

Gold has the atomic number 79. How many protons are in an atom of gold? How many electrons are there?

79 Protons and 79 Electrons (Remember - in an elecrtically neutral atom, the number of protons = the number of electrons)

Which part of an atom is important in bonding and determining the charge of an atom?

Electrons "The MUCH more exciting and 'electric' part of the atom!!"

An atom that has a charge is known as an Ion

How was this charge acquired? By the gaining or losing of Electrons

Today we continued through the notes on ions and in to bonding and an introduction to water. Most of the period we worked on the differences betwen ionic and covalent bonds.  The way I always remembered the difference between the two was that prefix "co" means together or both (for example, you guys have CO-Ed gym because the boys and girls SHARE the gym) just like in a Covalent bond electrons are SHARED.  In an ionic bond electrons are actually lost or gained.  So when one atom gains an electron it "owns it".  A way to remember this is "Ionic means "I OWN it"! 

I told you I would never make you learn something that I couldn't give you a reason WHY you should know it. That is why after the discussion on ions, I played the following pod cast on electrolytes. We will continue to see how this all plays a role in "life" as the chapter goes on!

THEN I gave you an introduction to what we will be discussing over the next two days.  This guy will tell you in about 11 minutes what we are going to discuss and DO in the next couple days!

Take a look!

Chemistry of life

The next part of this unit is on the chemistry of life.  I had you take a look at this picture to show how much chemistry interacts with all other areas of science.  EVERYTHING that happens in our bodies comes down to a chemical reaction.  This is why it is so important to get some of these basics down before we get into the complexities of life!

Today's daily questions were a review of what you learned in Physical Science.

Here they were:

Tuesday September 4^th

Let’s see what you remember from physical science!!!

The smallest unit of matter is known as an Atom

Fill in the following table matching the parts of an atom with its charge

Part of atom	Charge
Proton	Positive
Neutron	Neutral (No)
Electron	Negative

 After that we started into some notes on basic chemistry.  Please check edline for these - today we made it through the slides on bonds and will continue with these tomorrow!

We made it through our first FULL week!!! Nice job guys!!

As an extension to our lab from Wednesday - I had you see how yeast makes bread dough rise while you took your first Daily Question Quiz (DQ2) on the characteristics of life and proper experimentation.  After that we discussed a little more how microorganisms are used in creating different food products. For instance - ever wonder how swiss cheese gets the holes in it?

Check out this video!

Congratulations on making it through your first full week - Enjoy your Three day Weekend!!!

Metabolism Lab Wrap up and Questions

The Daily Questions for today dealt with making a proper experiment and following the steps of the scientific method.  You have learned about the scientific method and proper experimentation by Mr.McConahy and/or Mr.Timmerman.  Because of this, I am not going to spend a ton of time teaching you this on its own, but during labs throughout the year we will revisit the importance of both of these.

Thursday August 30^th

Yesterday we performed a controlled experiment.  Why do you think it was important that the ONLY thing we changed was the amount of sugar we fed the organism? (Each test tube had the same amount of yeast, same amount of water, the same color balloon, the same size test tube, etc.)

By only changing ONE variable, we can draw accurate conclusions.  If we changed both the amount of sugar AND the amount of yeast for instance, we would not be able to tell if the results we got were because of the sugar, or because there was more yeast.

“If we feed the yeast more sugar, then it will produce more waste”

This statement is an example of a:

A.  Theory  B.Experiment  C.Conclusion D.Hypothesis

This is a hypothesis because it can be tested.  A THEORY is something that has already been tested and proven true over and over.

The rest of the period I gave you guys time to answer the Lab questions and finish your note cards from yesterday.  

REMEMBER OUR FIRST DAILY QUESTION QUIZ IS TOMORROW!!!!

Metabolism Lab Progress

Starting to see metabolism at work!!

Test tube 2 and 4 seem to have some metabolic action

Test tube three is making it's way in there now!!

Now 4 fell over?!?!
What is up with that?

On closer examination - It is because if overflowed!!!

Close-up to metabolism in action

** Check out Edline for the pics of you guys actually performing the lab!!  Go to the "contents" part of Edline and click on "Characteristics of life pics"

Characteristics of life lab procedures

Each Group obtained a tube filled with 2 grams of living organisms.

Each tube of organisms got fed a different amount of "food"

We also gave the organism's 5ml of warm water

Put the organisms, the food and the water in the designated test tube, shake it up a bit

Put a balloon on top and see what happens!!!

First lab day!!!

I started you off with daily questions to get you thinking - but as a CLASS we didn't answer them.  I asked you to work within your group to see if you could start to do this on your own.  I have told you before and will tell you again and again, Get comfortable with being a little confused. IT'S OK!!!  Don't SETTLE (our motto for this year) for being confused though - work it out!!!!  

Collaborate with each other and see what happens!!!  Here were the questions and answers.

Wednesday August 29^th

The fact that we sweat when it is hot outside could be an example of two different characteristics of life.  Which two and why?
Homeostasis - because we are trying to maintain a constant body temperature.
Respond to Stimuli because we are responding to our environment.

Determine which choice best answers the following question. (Be prepared to tell me what is wrong with the others)

Which characteristic is share by all prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms?

A.  Need for a source of energy(Correct answer because this is metabolism)

B.  Ability to make their own food
All organisms don't make their OWN food, but all organisms to go through metabolism.

C.  Ability to reproduce asexually
Not all organisms reproduce asexually, but all organisms DO have the capability of reproducing.

D.  Need for oxygen for respiration
Not all organisms need OXYGEN for repiration, but all organisms do go through different forms of metabolism.

E.  Have Feelings
Not all organisms have feelings - but all organisms DO respond to stimuli in some form.

I also had you working through your first lab, see a future blog post about this and we will discuss what happened tomorrow!!
Great job today with your first lab.  It was a little chaotic, but sometimes labs get that way.  As long as we are focusing on our goal, a LITTLE chaoes never hurt anyone ;)
Great job today with your first lab.  It was a little chaotic, but sometimes labs get that way.  As long as we are focusing on our goal, a LITTLE chaoes never hurt anyone ;)

Finishing characteristics of life notes

Tuesday August 28^th

All living organisms can be classified as prokaryotic or Eukaryotic.  These names tell you the type of Cell that make them up.  Of these two types, bacteria are considered Prokaryotic

An organism’s ability to maintain a constant internal environment in an ever-changing external environment is known as Homeostasis

Give me one example of this. Maintaining a constant body temperature, blood glucose level, blood oxygen level.  As well as MANY more!!!  ANY time our bodies start adjusting to a changing cellular environment to keep a constant internal environment is an example of homeostasis.

After the daily question we continued throught the notes on the characteristics of life including metabolism, reproduction, repsonse to stimuli and growth.  I hope that over the next three days we will be able to actually LOOK at some of these characteristics in real life!

Here were some of the slide we looked at.

How do we maintain a constant body temperature?!?!

Plants responding to their environment

First Part of Characteristics of Life Notes

Today was your first set of notes!  We started the class with the following daily questions:

In order to be considered alive - all living organisms must contain at least one Cell.

Within that (cell) all living organisms contain a molecule of DNA which codes for everything about the organism.

True or False:  If something moves then it is alive. Why or why not?
FALSE:  Just because something moves (like my car) does not mean it's alive and just because something DOESN'T move (Like a tree) does not mean it ISN'T alive.

I then let you guys see the "Movie Trailer" to this section.  Here it is again for you to see.  There were some good questions in here to keep in mind as we go through these notes.

We then started into the characteristics of life notes.  Please check Edline if you missed any of these.

We got through the slides dealing with cellular organization and some of the examples of homeostasis. Tomorrow we will continue through these notes with the hopes of doing our first activity on Wednesday and Thursday this week!

What's coming this week!

This week we will be answering the following question 

We saw on Friday that biology is the study of life - so...... what does it mean to be "Alive"  All the "creatures" shown on the slide above are alive and there are SEVEN things that ALL of them have in common.  By the end of this week I hope that we will be able to discuss, differentiate and categorize different characteristics of life and give specific examples of how we can determine if something is living or not.

First Set of Daily Questions and getting into the "routine" of things!

Today I started the class with our first set of daily questions.  This is how just about EVERY class period will go.  When you enter class, start writing down the daily questions in your notebook and looking for the answers.  I already received the question "Do we have to write down the question?" YES!!!  While today's may not have seemed necessary, other days it will be crucial.  Most Friday's we will have a Daily Question Quiz (DQQ) that are based off of these, you will not be able to actually USE your notes, but that is what you want to use to study for them.  By only having answers written down without questions, you will not know what you are studying!!  This will make more sense as the year progresses.

Here were today's Daily Questions:

Friday August 24

How many times can you use a hall pass in a nine-week period? THREE (This includes if you let me know before class that you need to stop at your locker or go the restroom before class.  If you are back in class after the bell rings - that was a hall pass usage.  After you have used your three hall passes those would be considered tardies)

What parts of the class can you use them?

 First or last 5 minutes of class.  

Biology is the study of what? Life.  The term "-ology" means "The study of" and the prefix "Bio" means "life" (For instance - a BIOgraphy is a story of someone's LIFE)

Tell me one characteristic that you think defines “life”

*** I had you guys brain storm this together and you came up with a lot of these on your own.  I was very pleased with how you worked through this and look forward to doing this more often with daily questions (having at least one that you discuss together and answer on a note card)

The correct answers are:

cellular organization(All organisms contain at least one cell), homeostasis (The ability to maintain a constant internal environment), metabolism(taking in nutrition and releasing waste), responsiveness, reproduction, heredity(all living organisms contain DNA), and growth.

We will be looking at this in more detail on Monday and will probably have this as a daily question again.

In the discussion of metabolism I was able to give you the first "real world" example about Morning breath.  Here is a clip that discusses what I did about morning breath really being the result of Bacteria Metabolizing in your mouth.  So morning breath is sort of "bacteria farts"

Welcome Back!!!

      Here we are at the beginning of another school year!!  Today I showed you guys a welcome back video that introduced a little about what to expect and what I will be expecting of you.  I have great expectations for this year!!  I then had you tell me a little about yourself as both a person and a student.  This is INCREDIBLY important to me and I am very grateful for your participation in that "getting to know you" survey.  Tomorrow we will start the class off with Daily Questions to get us into the "routine"of how this class works!

If you missed the video - here it is!!

Change in Dates

We are HERE - Time for finals !!!

     If you decided to do the write up as your final - just a reminder that is due on Friday.  If you are doing the write up only as a discussion on evolution and natural selection it is now due on THURSDAY (not tomorrow as originally stated)!!!
     You received a review packet yesterday in class and continued to work through it today.  Please take time looking at each section using it as a reminder of what we have learned so far.  I also put last years bio 1 final on edline for your referance.  Take a look at this to help you prepare for  yours!!

Flashy Fish Simulation

Today I showed you the following link that goes through different scenarios that would affect the rates of evolution in a population.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/educators/lessons/lesson4/act2.html

A little background on the guppies.  MALE guppies are the ones that are usually "pretty" or "Flashy" as they are trying to impress the females who are usually very "drab".  There needs to be a balance though between being flashy to impress the ladies - but not TOOO flashy that all the predators are able to see you and therefore eat you. We ran through a couple scenarios for many generations to see what happened to the population.  What we found was that in certain scenarios, the types of predators did not affect the population at all.  Other times the brightest fish died off and only the drab survived.  I encourage you to run through these scenarios and look at the results and the analysis which speaks of why

Survival of The Sickest and Why Elephants Have Big Ears

So far we have continued through the notes on Evolution/natural selection.  I printed out the major forms of micro and macroevolution for you to give us some time to start into a project.  I mentioned in class today that if I can get REAL creative, I will have your final be a paper based off the chapter I assigned you and how you can relate all that we have learned this semester with your chapter.  The two books the chapters are taken from are below.

You have also received a "packet".... oh dreaded packet..... with questions based on this chapter.  I encourage you to work through this at your own pace as this will mostly likely take the place of a test on this topic.  I really would like you to work on showing how everything we have learned this semester molds so perfectly together!!!   I will give you a detailed rubric to the project as soon as I get it typed!!!!

Evolution and Natural Selection

This week we started in to our LAST chapter :) :) :) on Evolution and Natural Selection.  The daily questions we received Tuesday, Wednesday and Today are below.  I know that you covered basics of evolution and natural selection last year but this year we will be applying our understanding of Genetics and gene expression to get a better understanding of how exactly allele frequencies change over time.
Tuesday:
1.  Which population of organisms would be in greatest danger of becoming extinct?
***A population of organisms having few variations living in an unstable environment.
*Having little variation is not a good thing when a major environmental change occurs.


2.  In order for a new species to develop, there must be a change in the
**Genetic makeup of a population.  (This can be DUE to a change in the temperature or migration patterns, but ultimately it comes down to a change in the allele frequencies of a population)


3.  Which statement is NOT part of the concept of natural selection?
A.  Individuals that possess the most favorable variations will have the best chance of reproducing.
B.  Variation occurs among individuals in a population
C. More individuals are produced than will survive
D.  Genes of an individual adapt to a changing environment***GENES do not adapt - individuals adapt and populations adapt - but genes do not.  They may "change" due to random mutations though.

** 2  - a decrease in the advantage of having white fur.  Since over a 10 year period the presence of ANY white rabbits was eliminated, that most likely means that having white fur was no longer a good thing.
Which statement best describes a current understanding of natural selection?
A.  Natural Selection influences the frequency of an adaptation in a population.

We then started into the notes on Evolution and natural selection.  Please check edline for these

Wednesday May 2^nd

The scientist who traveled to the Galapagos island’s was……… Charles Darwin

He specifically looked at what type of organisms? Finches (along with many other interesting creatures!!)

True or False:  All Mutations are Bad FALSE!!!  Mutations simply mean a change in DNA  This can sometimes have an advantage, sometimes be bad, or other times have no affect on the phenotype.  For instance, i showed you the clip about a child that was born with 6 fully functional fingers and toes (see Below)

True or False:  Not all mutations are passed on to our offspring. TRUE - Only mutations that occur in germ line cells (those that will go through meiosis to become our gametes) will be passed on to our offpsring.

Thursday May 3^rd

*What did Darwin notice about the finches and what did that lead him to believe about the “evolution” of them? He noticed that their beak shapes directly corresponded to the type of food they ate.  What he theorized was that the finches has migrated from the main land of South America and overtime adapted to different food sources.  He called this "Descent with modification"

*With our understanding of genetics, these different “variations” are known as what? Alleles

*What do you think caused these different variations? Mutations

*What two types of variations do you believe would provide an “advantage” to a species?  Any allele that would allow them to survive (eat and not be eaten) and reproduce.

Today we continued with the notes and will next move into some chapters from the book Survival of the Sickest.