cell notes

These are the notes on cell theory and definitions for cell organelles

Cell notes

cheers!

90% bacteria, 10% human

A lot of our conversations lately have included the organisms called "bacteria." I have shared with students that these simple little critters often carry the stigmata of being "germs" that cause bad things, but I have mentioned how they are good also. In fact we "humans" are more bacteria than we are human. The following is an excellent talk in which the presenter discusses, with visuals, those facts and spends most of the time discussing how bacteria communicate with each other. Cool Stuff! Enjoy!

Cells update

We have been talking about different types of cells and other microscopic "things." If you click on the following links, they are excellent interactives that allow you to understand the size differences between the items:

Cell size and Scale

How big is a...?

We also began discussing the differences between the cell categories of:

• Prokaryotic cells (unorganized, primitive cells)
  
• Eukaryotic cells (organized, evolved cells)
  

Cells

We have started learning about the cell theory and how all living things are made of at least one cell. The first cells that we have looked at were "cork" cells; the same cells that Robert Hooke first saw in 1665 and then coined the term "cell" which is Latin for "little room"

We were then able to look at some living cells that students provided. Students sampled their own cheek cells and stained them blue so they were easier to see. This lead to the introduction of a few of the organelles students will be responsible for: cell membrane (the "skin" of a cell), cytoplasm (the "guts" or "environment" of a cell), and nucleus (the "brain" of the cell that contains the DNA). We were even able to estimate the diameter or length of the cheek cells at 0.1 mm. This means that 10 of our cheek cells could fit side-by-side across 1 mm! Cool stuff!


Students then have been able to look at red blood cells (prepared by a scientific company on slides) and compare their shape and size. We estimated the size of a red blood cell to be 0.016 mm; not bad considering the more precise measurement is more like 0.008 mm! That means that approximately 125 red blood cells could fit within 1 mm!!!

Cell diagrams

Since we will be discussing cell parts and their functions in detail. I have asked students to print out a color diagram of a plant and animal cell. I actually set one up already at the link below so all you should have to do is print it. Please have them available Tuesday.

Plant and Animal cell diagrams (2 of each)

Began studying Biology

I have been so busy lately grading a lot of awesome Solar System projects that I have found it difficult to add to this blog the cool things we have been doing lately.

We transitioned from Astronomy to Biology. We began by discussing the characteristics of all living things which opened up a lot of discussion and debate. I was even able to convince at least half of my students that a nonliving object was living, because it moved, when it definitely was not (ask them about it).

We have been discussing the size of objects and the order in which they create more complex objects: atoms - molecules - organelles - cells - tissue - organs - organ systems - multicellular organisms

Students have been honing their microscope skills as I have been teaching them how to use a microscope, identify its parts, and understand how its magnification works. We have been able to look at numerous nonliving objects (salt, sand, sugar, feathers, pictures, and others) while students get used to the skills necessary to use microscopes.

Quiz Guide - Stars, Galaxies, Big Bang

The following link is a study guide (summary) of the 3 topics on tomorrow's quiz.

Click the picture of the "horse-head nebula" to access the study guide

Solar System Projects - Update

Solar System Projects are due May 4th
(-5 for every day late)

• In order to make the projects more manageable, I have reduced the total number of questions to be included in the project from ~100 to ~60. MAKE SURE THEY ARE ALL INCLUDED!
• Click on this link to access and print a copy of the mandatory question numbers as they are associated with the topic questions.
  

solar system projects

Today students had a quiz on Mars and Jupiter. The next quiz will be this Tuesday (4/14) and as always students can make up note cards to be used during the quiz.

After the quiz, students began working on their Solar System projects. Like any project, getting started is often slow and for some students all we could do is a little brainstorming and problem solving. This weekend, students should be getting materials to work with in class, printing pictures, etc. that they will use next week to be productive during class.

The new timeline for the project is as follows:

• Monday (4/13) - Work on projects for most of class.
• Tuesday (4/14) - Work on projects for most of class.
• Wednesday (4/15) - Work on projects for most of class.
• Thursday (4/16) - Work on projects for most of class.
• Friday (4/17) - Work on projects for most of class.
  

After next Friday, there will be NO MORE in-class time scheduled and it will be the responsibility of each student to finish the project outside of school or during after school hours which I will make myself available for.

I am giving students more than enough time and opportunities to work on this project and therefore I am setting a strict deadline of Monday, May 4th. This gives students 3 full weeks to seek guidance and solve problems!

Solar system projects - topic quizzes

Students took their first quiz on their topics for Mercury and Venus. The quiz for Mars and Jupiter was planned for tomorrow, however, we still need to finish discussing these topics before the quiz so it has been rescheduled for Thursday (4/9).

Students should be starting to make their note cards tonight that they can use on Thursday's quiz.

Solar System Project - Update

• Students have spent the past 6 class periods performing an internet research project on their 10 topic questions. All questions were due today for credit. All topic question sheets were graded for effort and therefore, most students have started off the 4th term with a strong A/B average.
• Tomorrow, students have a short open-note quiz on Mercury and Venus. The following 4 days students will have a short quiz on the remaining topics, all of which are short open-note quizzes.
• We will continue going over in class the answers to questions so students will know whether they have the accurate information.
• Students should have their one final product selected by tomorrow so that we can tentatively begin brainstorming and begin in-class work on their projects.

Is outerspace becoming a junkyard?

I have mentioned in class that there is a lot of debris that is floating around in space. This debris poses a huge threat on many levels. Even the smallest pieces of debris traveling at thousands of miles per hour can pose a threat to space exploration (see: Space Junk Near-Miss Sends Astronauts to Escape Pod). These "bullets" have the potential to impact satellites used for weather forecasting, communication, and exploration. The picture below gives a good visual of near-Earth objects (NEO) including a blanket of space junk around our planet.

Solar System projects

This week we began researching our solar system topics. Next week we will begin brainstorming ideas regarding how students want to organize their information and we may even be able to start working on the projects in class. For homework due at the beginning of class Monday, students must have questions answered for Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. For any students that want to get ahead, the link below is for the Saturn questions and you can print them up.

Saturn Questions

Back to the Moon?

I was enjoying Charlie Gibson and World News when they were in Houston and discussing the future of NASA's plans to go to the Moon.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7164052

PROJECT: Solar System

Today, I introduced students to the Solar System Project that they will be responsible for completing over the next 3 weeks. There are 10 topics that we will be learning about from the Sun all they way out to the Oort Cloud at the edge of our solar system.

The timeline for the project will include:

• 1 week of internet-based research on each topic
• 1 week of brainstorming and outlining, and working on projects.
  
• An additional week of outside class time has been incorporated in order for students finalize projects.

I have designed the project so students will hopefully enjoy their efforts, make more responsible decisions, and become actively involved during the process. There are 16 choices as to what a student's final product can be and they are free to be as creative and imaginative as they want. However, I have conveyed that the core information must be included and correct.

On the upper right of this blog, there is a list of links for project information (overview, timeline, grading rubric). I will update the timeline as needed, but if there are no schedule issues then the project will be due April 15th.

I will be after every Wednesday and Thursday to assist students wi

Tides and eclipses quiz

As announced last week, this Wednesday there is a quiz on tides and eclipses. Below is the presentation I used in class to discuss the how and whys of tides:

Results of Quiz: History of Space Travel

On March 18th, students took a quiz on the history of space travel leading up to the landing on the moon. Students spent 2 days doing a webquest finding answers to specific questions I gave them and another 3 days in class discussing the information they found (see presentation in previous post). As always, I offer the ability to use student-created notes (not class notes) to be used during my quizzes and tests. I am discouraged to see that a large majority of my students did not take advantage of this privilege. As a result, there was a very clear division of grades that proves the usefulness of putting forth the effort and being prepared.

Average quiz grade for students who prepared notes:
85%


Average quiz grade for students who DID NOT use notes:
64%


Need i say more?

History of space travel

For the past week, students performed a webquest on the "History of Space Travel" leading up to the landing on the moon. We discussed in class that landing on the moon involved many people's ideas and revolved around the "cold war." Below is the presentation that I showed students in class to enhance the information that they found online.

Students have a quiz on the material tomorrow (Wednesday) and can use a "notecard" with an area of no greater than 8.5 x 11 to write notes and use during the quiz.

Dolphins at play

I was watching a news clip about dolphins and their ability to play and had never realized that dolphins make their own toys! Notice how they make their own bubble rings and they make smaller rings from larger ones by biting the ring. Animal behaviors never cease to amaze me.

Usernames have changed

The usernames have changed for wikispaces to the following format:

• If your name is John Smith, your new username would be stu-johnsm (first name and then the first 2 letters of your last name).
• Your passwords are still the same.
  
• Note that if you are in my period 1, this has been done for you.

This was done because you are going to be taught a new program called "google docs" which requires you to have a user name and password, but I didn't want you to have 2 different usernames.