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!!