Week of October 13th

Week of October 13th

**Sorry I didn't get a chance to update this daily, it was quite the busy week!!!!*****
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For the Past week we have been doing an introduction to cells.  We watched a couple videos as an introduction last Friday:

On Tuesday we did an introductory reading and questions that focused on the main difference between prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells:

As We discussed this reading we looked at prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells underneath the microscope.

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The epithelia cell (skin cell) is eukaryotic.  The VERY small Lactobacillus are Prokaryotic cells.

Human Cheek Cells.  

We also took some notes on Tuesday and Wednesday:

Thursday I was out at the stream with Bio 2 students so you went through the following daily questions:

And then watched two screencasts of an introduction to the parts of a cell.  I instructed you to jot down the notes just as if I were teaching it.

Your notes should have looked something like this:

Today was our Daily Question Quiz and continued through notes (the ones shown above).  Next week we will continue on our discussion about the Organelles found in Eukaryotic Cells.

Catch up day, constructed response, Life's Greatest Miracle.

Today I gave you guys back your tests, let you look at the test itself to see what you missed and reminded you that YOU CAN RETAKE ANYTHING IN HERE!!!!!!!

If you plan on retaking the exam here are the stipulations:

It must be on your own time (Before or After School, During and ACTIVITY period - I will NOT get you out of an advisory period)
You must bring your original test and answer sheet
You will receive your new score UP TO a 90%


I also told you that for each test we would have a set of constructed response questions.  You will be required to do TWO constructed response questions, one about enzymes and the other about organic molecules.  These are going to be your options for each.

You had the time to start brainstorming your answers and ask me for advice on that.

In the meantime I put on a PBS movie called "The Greatest Miracle"

Our next chapter is on the basics of cells and cell structure / function.  It is AMAZING how we all started as ONE cell and it is the division/ replication of that single cell that makes us who we are.  This was a neat look at how development in the womb occurs and brings to life our cellular makeup as we go through the rest of the year.

Chemistry of Life Exam

We had our first big exam yesterday.  As I promised about 90% of the exam was directly from daily questions, daily question quizzes and Study Island.  This test is a good way for you to get a good look at the layout of most tests in here.

 *******REMEMBER******* 

We do DO OVERS in here!!! 

So you didn't do so swell..... study again and retake it.  I WANT to see you succeed in here!!

Some of your words of wisdom on this test......

Enzymes Daily Question Quiz and Chemistry of Life Review Materials

Friday October 3rd we took our Enzymes Daily Question Quiz and I gave you some review materials to start looking over for our test tomorrow.

These were the "I can statements" associated with this chapter:

And a study guide for all the different organic compounds:

I also encouraged you to log on to study island and do the "chemistry of life review"

Today as a class we went through those study island questions as a review session.  Make sure you look over your daily questions, daily question quizzes and study island questions!!!!!

Chemistry of Life Study Island Practice Test

Reminder:  TOMORROW DAILY QUESTION QUIZ ON ENZYMES!!!!!
We will have a review tomorrow and Monday - Our first UNIT exam will be Tuesday.

We started with the following daily questions about enzymes.

After a discussion about these daily questions we went over to the computer lab to work on a practice test on Study Island.  This was a way for you AND me to see what areas of this chapter you should spend your most time studying.  I will use the results to guide our review sessions in class.

Wednesday October 1st - Enzyme activity and Effect of Temperature

Today we only had one daily question and it was used to prepare us to today's activity:

Then we started into probably the GROSSEST lab of the year!!
The room stunk a little when you came in here today because of THIS......

We worked with fresh chicken liver today to look at the enzyme called catalase.  As the daily question mentioned, catalase is an important enzyme found in all living tissue that aids the the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.  We use liver tissue because liver has a VERY high concentration of catalase in it compared to other tissue. 

To see the reaction that was mentioned in the daily question we added hydrogen peroxide to a test tube then added a piece of the liver:

As the reaction continued
 the amount of oxygen
released increased the
amount of water
that accumulate
also increased.

As soon as the liver hit the
hydrogen peroxide
the reaction began.
The bubbles indicated that
Oxygen (O2) was being release
The resulting liquid would
 then be water.

To show that what was left in the tube was simply water and no longer hydrogen peroxide, we moved the liquid from the completed reaction into another tube.  If, in fact, that liquid was ONLY water and NO peroxide then adding a fresh piece of liver would not end in a reaction.

As you can see this was the liquid left - which we hypothesized was only water (and some liver juice).  When dropping a new piece of liver into the liquid, no reaction occurred.

Next up we wanted to test if the catalase found in the liver is REUSABLE........  So using the SAME piece of liver that we worked with first (that already completed on reaction) we added MORE hydrogen peroxide.

And Viola - You can see the tube on the left, that had the original liver was performing the reaction just as well as when the liver was fresh!!

We then moved on to notes about the effect of TEMPERATURE on enzyme action:

While you were writing these notes down I had the liver in some water and heated it to boiling.  At that point I added hydrogen peroxide and NO reaction occurred.  If you look at the graph above, it describes what happens to Enzymes that are heated past their "optimum temperature" the enzymes are Denatured.  This means the SHAPE of the enzyme has changed.  Remember we talked about how changing the shape of ANY protein will alter the function of it.  In enzymes specifically this is even more important because enzymes have a specific active site where the reactant(s) bind and if that is changed, the enzyme can no longer aid in that reaction.